With donations pouring in, terminally ill Maryland woman stranded in Alaska will go home

Author: Michelle Theriault Boots clock Updated: 1 day ago calendar Published 1 day ago

Nancy Greathouse, the terminally ill Maryland woman stuck in Alaska after she got sick on a cruise, will be going home as early as Wednesday morning, thanks to hundreds of people who donated more than $59,000 for a medevac flight in the two days since her story was published by Alaska Dispatch News, her family said.

"We just want to say thank you," said Daniel Kelley of Millersville, Maryland, Greathouse's son. "I think it's amazing these people would take this on to help Mom."

Greathouse, 71, had been on an Alaska cruise in May when she had a medical crisis in Juneau that landed her on a ventilator at an Anchorage hospital. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, she feared that she would die in Alaska, far from home, because she and her husband could not afford an expensive medevac flight home to Maryland that was not covered by insurance.

A member of an Anchorage church that has been helping the Greathouses told Alaska Dispatch News about her situation and the couple agreed to an interview. When a story about her was published online on Sunday, an online fundraiser to pay for the medevac had raised less than $4,000. As of Tuesday evening, it had generated $59,270 from 904 people.
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Michelle Theriault Boots is a reporter for Alaska Dispatch News.