![]() The album was a local success and she slowly built a fanbase with regular and rousing performances. In 1975, MacNeil decided to record her first album with money donated by family and friends. Though she played small gigs in local folk music clubs, she never seemed to be able to break through with big success, and had to supplement her singing jobs with work as a retail clerk and cleaning woman.ĭuring this time, she married and had two children, but divorced her husband after six years and moved back to Big Pond, N.S. She decided to try to make a career of it in 1962, when she moved to Toronto at the age of 17. MacNeil was blessed with a full, sweet voice with a light Celtic lilt and fell in love with singing at an early age. “Rita had a lot of adversity in her life to overcome and it’s just so admirable she was able to do what she did,” Murray told Canada AM. “…But then when she walked out on that stage, watch out, because she was in full control.”įellow Nova Scotian-bred singing legend Anne Murray, who appeared on a number of TV specials with MacNeil, called her “a dear sweet woman” and “a good soul” whose fans were devoted to her. “Rita was as nervous as can be before every show,” he said. But Edwards said all that would fade away when MacNeil would step out on stage. MacNeil was known to be painfully shy and admitted in her autobiography to having self-confidence issues, largely stemming from the abuse she suffered as a child as well as her weight. “We did over 400 shows together and I mentioned on my Facebook page last night that each and every one was very special, because there was no one more real and genuine than Rita MacNeil,” Edwards said. Even after 24 albums, hundreds of shows, and dozens of awards, MacNeil always remained humble, he said. And then all of a sudden, around 11:30 last night, they called to say she had slipped away.”Īlways the reticent and perhaps unlikely star, MacNeil was one of the hardest workers Edwards says he had ever seen. “Her vital signs were good, there was no brain damage, none of that stuff. ![]() “There was a lot of hope over the last couple of days,” he said. “The operation itself went well and then shortly afterward, she went into a coma and never actually came out of it,” Edwards told CTV’s Canada AM Wednesday morning from St Petersburg, Florida. She was advised to undergo what he described as a “routine surgery,” but then developed complications during the recovery. MacNeil’s longtime promoter, Brian Edwards, says MacNeil had entered hospital a few days ago because of an infection. The CBC flagship investigative program the fifth estate gave the Cape Breton Regional Hospital a D rating for its record on post-surgery mortality.Rita MacNeil, the Canadian singer-songwriter from Cape Breton with the sweetly powerful voice, passed away Tuesday night following complications from surgery. The health authority said the family has asked the matter be kept private. I feel very comfortable if my 86-year-old father or my 15-year-old daughter was sick, that if they came here they will receive safe and compassionate, quality care," said Andrew Lynk, the authority's vice-president of medicine. "If things don't go right, we're committed to making sure they do go right. In a release, the Cape Breton District Health Authority said it cannot violate patient confidentiality but said the article was incorrect. He said people should be angry, and demand safer and cleaner hospitals. That realization should give us all a sickening feeling in the pit of our stomachs," Picard wrote. MacNeil was, she couldn’t survive routine, minor surgery in a Canadian hospital. difficile) outbreak that killed 11 people. Picard wrote that the precise cause of death is not known.ĭuring MacNeil’s stay part of the hospital was closed because of a Norwalk virus outbreak, Picard wrote. He also noted the health authority’s 2011 Clostridium difficile (C. On Friday morning, Globe and Mail health reporter André Picard wrote an article entitled "Rita MacNeil’s death should make us angry," in which he said the singer contracted an infection in the hospital days before her death. ![]() The 68-year-old singer died last week following complications from surgery after a recurring infection. Beloved Canadian singer Rita MacNeil did not die from a hospital-acquired infection, the Cape Breton District Health Authority said in response to a now-corrected article published in the Globe and Mail newspaper on Friday.
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