Help Emma finish her Lipedema surgery

Emma has a painful disease and she was halfway through her surgical treatment plan when her insurance (Manitoba Health) took away her coverage for life sustaining, medically necessary treatment. Now she’s fighting to continue her care and get her life back. Emma needs our help.

In 2021, while recovering from an injury sustained in her career as a nurse, Emma Cloney was diagnosed with the genetic condition lipedema. Lipedema is a connective tissue disorder, characterized by abnormal accumulation of adipose (fat) tissue in the body beginning in the legs and arms. Unlike normal adipose tissue, however, lipedema tissue is non-metabolic, meaning it cannot be affected or reduced by diet or exercise. It is a painful disease and, if left untreated, can lead to additional health conditions such as impaired mobility and obstruction of the body’s lymphatic system.

The treatment for advanced lipedema patients involves a very specialized form of liposuction which must be performed by trained specialists in order to remove the affected tissue without compromising the lymphatic system. Multiple surgeries are often necessary in order to treat all areas and safely remove the tissue. There are currently no doctors in Canada that specialize in the treatment of lipedema, so Emma was forced to seek treatment out of the country. In January of 2022, Manitoba Health approved Emma to receive lipedema surgery from a specialist in California. Between January and June of 2022, Emma traveled to California three times for treatment, each time requiring a referral for treatment from a local plastic surgeon. Although Manitoba Health covered the surgical costs and certain expenses, not all expenses were covered, forcing Emma to spend her retirement savings in order to pursue treatment.

In September of 2022, her fourth surgery referral was suddenly denied mid-way through her course of treatment. Manitoba Health rejected this referral, claiming that the surgeries she had been receiving were now considered an “emerging treatment”, and as a result would no longer be covered. This decision was made without any new medical research to justify their position. Emma was left in an unspeakable position, forced to choose between abandoning the treatment she had begun, waiting for an appeal board to overturn Manitoba Health’s decision, or paying for the costly procedures out of pocket.

With her condition worsening and unable to wait an indeterminate amount of time to continue receiving care, Emma had to make a decision. Unable to afford the treatment from her original surgeon on her own, she changed care providers and traveled to Germany to continue her treatment at her own expense. This forced her not only to incur crushing debt, but also to have to overcome navigating international travel only a week after major surgery without any sort of support person or caregiver by her side.

With an appeal date now set, this GoFundMe campaign is being created to help Emma deal with the expenses which Manitoba Health refused to cover, as well as the cost of her treatment once she was unjustly denied.