Kelowna humanitarian needs help getting home after Cambodia heart attack

Jacqueline Light (left) had a massive heart attack in Cambodia while uninsured, leaving her daughter Stephanie Light to try to raise almost $100,000 to get her mom home. (Photograph by: Stephanie Light, For The Province)

August 14, 2011
By Mike Raptis
The Province (British Columbia, Canada)

A B.C. humanitarian with a heart of gold has undergone cardiac arrest in Cambodia and now needs the help of others to get home, her daughter says.

Kelowna resident Stephanie Light, 22, says her 53-year-old mom, Jacqueline Light, had been helping others in war-torn villages for the past two years when she suddenly had a massive heart attack on July 27th.

“Unfortunately it led to her being in a coma,” said Stephanie on Sunday.

“She went into cardiac arrest and [paramedics] had to spend 45 minutes resuscitating her.”

Jacqueline was then airlifted to a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand,and her daughter and sister, Linda, were made aware of her condition.

As her only family, they were also made aware of a medical bill that could cost up to $100,000, since Jacqueline’s health insurance had expired.

“All of the medical bills fall on my shoulders and my aunt’s,” Stephanie said.

Stephanie and her aunt Linda immediately flew to Bangkok and stayed at Jacqueline’s bedside for two weeks before returning this past Thursday to try to raise funds on Jaqueline’s behalf.

They have raised $26,600 thus far, but still need over $10,000 just to pay for the flight home — a commercial flight that Jacqueline will need a doctor and two nurses to accompany her on.

“We are paying [the $26,600] on Monday and hoping based on that amount, they’ll OK her to leave,” said Stephanie.

“We’ve booked tentative flights for Aug. 21 so we’re hoping by then we’ll have the $37,000.”

Jacqueline’s Bangkok hospital bill is currently at $53,000 and rising.

Stephanie says her mom’s heart had been with the people of Cambodia, especially women and children from impoverished and war-torn villages.

“She basically gave everything that she had and threw it into that country and into these people’s lives.”

Jacqueline, a former esthetician, had begun her humanitarian work two years ago in Cambodia working for an organization that took in prostitutes from Thailand and taught them esthetics.

She then began her own not-for-profit organization in the “last couple months” working with the orphans.

The B.C. Ministry of Health said Sunday they will review the case and urge British Columbians to ensure they have additional medical insurance in place before leaving the country.

“We have sympathy for the patient and her family and we understand how stressful it can be when a loved one falls ill, particularly when they are far from home,” said ministry spokesman Stephen May.

Donations can be made at any CIBC bank through a trust fund called the Jacqueline Light Trust Account.

A website is also available, and can be found here: caringbridge.org/visit/jlight