Local activist Kitchikeesic ‘fighting for life’ after surgery

“Please pray for me. I am going through a lot right now. Tonight I am frightened.”

Lynda Kitchikeesic’s Facebook post last Saturday presaged the emergency medical surgery that the Ottawa activist and volunteer underwent on Wednesday when, near death with her kidney function at just four per cent, a dialysis line was inserted directly into her heart via her neck.

“I have had no intention of doing dialysis and went away to Florida cheerfully prepared to die,” she wrote Thursday following the procedure. “Well I didn’t. Mainly because I have a beautiful son Lyndon — who is set to achieve the loftiest of goals, a PhD. I hope to someday witness this great achievement.”

Kitchikeesic, who was born in 1965 in northern Ontario to an Ojibway mother and raised by her adoptive family in Old Ottawa South, learned recently that she had polycystic kidney disease, an inherited kidney disorder, and, without treatment, had only two months to live.

She returned to Ottawa for surgery and treatment.

For decades she has been involved in community issues, particularly the Idle No More movement and the Ottawa Police Service’s Community and Police Action Committee (COMPAC), the goal of which is to “nurture and develop … communication, respect, accountability and trust” between police and minorities.

She also helped organize powwows for Indigenous youths, the annual Flotilla for Friendship, and was an on-air host of CTV’s Aboriginal Voices.

Right now I am fighting for my life, and so if you don’t hear back from me, please don’t be angry or sad. I just need some time. I am afraid and Iaminpain.

A friend of Kitchikeesic’s, Tori Cress, has started a YouCaring crowdfunding page for her, hoping to raise $2,500 for various medical and living expenses.

“Lynda has given everything in her volunteer work and has asked for nothing in return,” writes Cress, “except maybe a warm hug and big smile. She has been a best friend to so many people. She has been a mentor, matriarch, sister and best friend from even before the first moment we met in person.”

Kitchikeesic, meanwhile, remains in hospital, recovering.

“Your kind words and deeds are helping me deal,” she wrote on Thursday. “Right now I am fighting for my life, and so if you don’t hear back from me, please don’t be angry or sad. I just need some time. I really don’t want to talk about it. I am afraid and I am in pain. They say I will feel better soon and I am counting on that happening.”

To make a donation, go to youcaring.com and search for “Kitchikeesic.”