Story

"It is a loss that you must bear every day. It is a loss that flashes back every morning and every night when you go to sleep… the memories don’t go away easily."

To lose a child is tragic – to lose a child with no real warning, a child who had seemed in perfect health, poised on the threshold of a promising future, is even more heartrending.

In March of 2005, Daljit and Kamal Nagpal’s second daughter Trisha, a brilliant student and popular teen, complained of swollen feet and mild bloating. Over the course of eleven days, Trisha’s condition worsened dramatically and quickly, until, while undergoing a liver transplant at the University Hospital in London, Ontario, Trisha's heart gave up and she passed away.

“We didn’t find out until the autopsy that Trisha’s death was directly related to complications arising from Wilson’s Disease, a rare liver condition that had quietly and insidiously caused the deterioration of her liver with no warnings or symptoms. And as a family, we decided that we would make a commitment to the Liver Foundation in Trisha’s honour order to raise awareness, raise funds, and get people thinking about the importance of the health of this organ that can be reduced to as little as 5% of its capacity to function before transmitting visible, palpable signals to the body that it is in peril.”

The Canadian Liver Foundation, one of Healthpartners’ sixteen member agencies, is dedicated to liver health and to eliminating the over 100 forms of liver disease, through research, education and public awareness programs. The Foundation has established an annual research scholarship in Trisha’s name. The Nagpal Family also instituted the Trisha Nagpal Memorial Scholarship at the University of Ottawa.

Led by Trisha’s sisters Sonya and Simrin, the family has also found positive ways to celebrate Trisha’s life and involve the community through a Valentine’s Day dinner and dance event, and a special Liver Foundation Walkathon “Stroll for Liver” in June in her honor. Trisha’s friends have also raised funds for Liver Foundation by holding charity shows at the University of Ottawa.

“We are doing this to remember Trisha, but we’re also raising awareness of liver disease so that what we lived won’t happen to other families. When people hear of liver disease, they generally don’t associate it with children or teens. We want to encourage parents to have their children screened for hereditary and other liver diseases, and to learn about symptoms that tragically escaped all of us when Trisha fell ill.”