'Fantastic, sweet' Calgary girl who received liver transplant in U.S. dies after cancer returns

A three-year-old Calgary girl who underwent an organ transplant in the United States in an attempt to fight a rare form of liver cancer has died.

Greta Marofke's family announced her passing in a post on the Greta's Guardians Facebookpage, saying the three-year-old took her last breath "snuggled between her Mama and Dada."

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"The pain we feel is unbearable, and words cannot express how much we already miss her, but we know our girl is no longer suffering," read the post.

The toddler was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma a rare form of liver cancer a few days before her second birthday.

Her cancer was treated successfully at the Alberta Children's Hospital, but when it returned in August 2016, her parents were told palliative care was the only option left for the little girl.

The family turned to the United States, where a doctor at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital told the family a liver transplant could work for Greta, who was denied a transplant in Alberta because her odds of survival were not high enough.

The family embarked on a campaign to raise half of the estimated $1 million US cost to fund the surgery and treatment. Their GoFundMe page had raised more than $300,000 as of Wednesday.

Cancer spread

Greta got a new liver in early May less than 24 hours after the family arrived in the U.S. While the surgery went well, the family was told spots were found in Greta's lungs just over a month later, which indicated the cancer had spread.

Greta and her family came back to Calgaryto continue her cancer fight at the Alberta's Children's Hospital.

In August, her family was told the tumours in her lungs had grown and multiplied, and chemotherapy was not working.

After a trip to Disneyland in late August, Greta was hospitalized. In a post on the Greta's Guardians Facebookpost last week, the family said Greta's disease had "progressed significantly and quickly," but the family was determined to keep fighting.

In a Facebook post Tuesday night, Greta's motherwrote, "It's hard to say the words 'my child is going to die,' but here we are, saying them and living in the hell that comes with that reality."

Greta died early Wednesday morning.