She met Sarah, Duchess of York, Kurt Browning and several soap stars.

Carmen stayed strong and positive throughout her wait, even though her health was deteriortating. In desperation her parents arranged to have her assessed by a doctor from the Pittsburg Children's Hospital. She was listed in the United States then, and since Pittsburg was close enough, she was allowed to remain in Toronto to wait.

Five months after being listed in the U.S., Carmen was called and received a single lung transplant. The other lung had been damaged during retrieval. All seemed well at first but she had rejection several times. The last time, she was treated very aggressively for rejection but she in fact had PTLD - a condition which often appears after a transplant but not usually until at least a year after.

Carmen was fighting so hard for life her doctors decided to re-list her for another transplant. Within two weeks lungs became available. During the 13 hour double lung transplant, Carmen arrested several times. Her new lungs were working perfectly but the rest of her body had been too traumatized to rally back. She died on October 9, 1992 at the age of 15.