Trinette Britt-Johnson, chief of staff for Rich Township Supervisor Calvin Jordan, is stranded in Jamaica in a life-threatening condition as she is running out of the medication needed to keep a transplanted kidney from rejecting.
Britt-Johnson had attempted to get off the island before Hurricane Melissa struck, but was unable to secure a flight. Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane, killing at least eight, according to the Associated Press.
“She had been trying to get out of there since last Saturday, but to no avail,” Jordan said. “Flights, they wouldn’t come in, nor were they leaving out.”
Jordan and Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill are appealing to the federal government to evacuate Britt-Johnson to Florida for immediate medical treatment.
“We are making a public appeal to President Trump,” McCaskill said. “We need him to take the steps necessary to get an airlift to bring Trinette home. She cannot survive without the medication.”
Britt-Johnson had been diagnosed with a rare kidney disease in 2020. She received a transplant in March of last year, and had only recently been cleared to fly again.
“She wanted to go celebrate life, her new life, with her new kidney, in Jamaica,” McCaskill said. “She and her husband and a couple of their friends went on a short trip, and unfortunately the hurricane hit and she was unable to get back. At this point she’s been almost 40 hours without her medication.”
McCaskill said she has been reaching out to members of Congress as well as to the United States ambassadors to Jamaica and the Bahamas for emergency help for Britt-Johnson. As of Thursday morning, she had only been notified that the State Department was aware of the situation.
“We’re working in concert to make sure that we’re doing absolutely everything we can,” McCaskill said. “We are exhausted, but we’re here and we’re praying.”
Britt-Johnson’s condition is highly time-sensitive. She had taken two additional days of medication with her on her trip, but is now completely out.
According to a news release, the medication Britt-Johnson needs is not available in Jamaica, and multiple hospitals on the island have been unable to help her.
“She’s been without medication to keep the body from rejecting transplanted organs,” said Jack Lynch, a former senior advisor with the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network. “She’s been without it for over 40 hours. For a patient that is immunosuppressed, that is an extremely negative status.”
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If Britt-Johnson is unable to get the medication and treatment she needs, Lynch said, her body will start to reject her new kidney.
“The body simply will begin to recognize that this kidney she received is a foreign object, and it will begin to send white blood cells to fight that kidney and its existence,” Lynch said.
From that point, Lynch said, there is a strong risk that other organs, including the heart, will begin to shut down.
“The next 48 hours is critical,” said publicist Sean Howard. “We’re literally in a life or death scenario right now.”