Airdrie girl with life-threatening illness heartbroken to miss Monday concert by her idol Shawn Mendes
Airdrie girl with life-threatening illness heartbroken to miss Monday concert by her idol Shawn Mendes
All a 14-year-old Airdrie girl named Kaley Biggar wanted was to see Shawn Mendes sing on Monday, but then she received a life-threatening diagnosis.
Biggar was diagnosed with a yeast infection in her blood and for the past seven weeks, has been a patient at the Alberta Children's Hospital, where she's receiving an aggressive antibiotic treatment to clear up the infection, according to Dana Leann, a friend of the Biggar family.
Further complicating matters, Biggar is being transferred to Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton next week. There, on July 11, she's scheduled to have open heart surgery, and get a pacemaker she's had since childhood replaced in the hopes of curing her.
Shawn Mendes performs in concert during Q102's iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, in Philadelphia. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)
Biggar's kidney function is declining as well, which makes the surgery even more necessary.
Because of the threat of contracting any virus, Biggar can't go see the pop star perform Monday night at the Saddledome in Calgary because even if she caught a cold, that would result in a six-week delay for her surgery.
Kaley Biggar at Children's Hospital in Calgary
Biggar was born with multiple, life-threatening birth defects and has had 44 surgeries, with two more scheduled for the next four weeks. She was born with three holes in her heart and is 100 per cent feeding tube dependent.
The Alberta Children's Hospital has reached out to Mendes with no luck yet.
The Biggar family wants the public to share her story in the hopes of getting the singer's attention.
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