Canadian opera singer Measha Brueggergosman has been admitted to a Calgary hospital after suffering "severe" chest pain.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the 41-year-old said she is at Foothills Medical Centre awaiting double heart bypass surgery, which means she could miss the funeral of her father, Sterling Gosman.
“My Dad and I are strong of spirit but we also share a bum ticker, unfortunately,” she wrote. “Nearly ten years to the day of my aorta exploding, I woke up in Calgary on the day I was meant to fly home to Nova Scotia with severe chest pain – almost at the same time that my father was making his own journey home to glory on the other side of the country.
“I can’t begin to express how devastating it is to be this far from home, in a hospital bed, and unable to be with my family. The agony of not being with my mother and my sons right now has inspired me to write this post because I am in desperate need of prayer and support.”
Brueggergosman asked fans to either “rally and do our best to advocate on my behalf for my surgery to happen as soon as it’s safe.”
She wrote: “The loss of a parent is a major life event and I’m concerned that to be denied the privilege of taking part in the rituals of loss will be of no help to my heart.”
Brueggergosman, who hails from Canada’s East Coast, was in Calgary to perform with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra at a concert that was live-streamed.