Cassandra Smith - CONTRIBUTED

Cassandra Smith, the 10-year-old girl who needed $18 million for a liver transplant, died last Thursday at the University Hospital of The West Indies.

Cassandra spent eight years living with cirrhosis of the liver, a chronic liver disease. She died less than a month before her 11th birthday and a fortnight after her caregiver, Patricia Grey, made a desperate public appeal in THE STAR for help to find the funds for a liver transplant.

Kimberly Seymour, a community development officer from the Social Development Commission, who had been assisting Cassandra, spoke with THE STAR about her passing.

Seymour said that on October 18, the day THE STAR published her story, little Cassandra was at home with Grey, when she collapsed and fractured her skull.

She was taken to the Spanish Town Hospital where Seymour said the doctors indicated that Cassandra was "unconscious and her vital signs were not looking good". Her brain was injured, swollen and bleeding. She was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

At 10 pm, before she was to be transported, Cassandra reportedly jumped up from the bed and hugged Grey for about a minute. Grey said she tried to get a response from her by showing her a copy of THE STAR and saying, "look, Cassie, you getting help, look!"

She is said to have mumbled a response before losing consciousness. Cassandra died while on life support.

Her complications

Her ailments included diabetes, complications of the heart, fainting spells, malnutrition, extremely soft and brittle bones, vomiting and cirrhosis of the liver.

Since the story appeared in THE STAR,Cassandra received more than $100,000, mostly from concerned citizens, in aid of her transplant. The money will now be used for funeral arrangements.