In the weeks leading up to her daughter's second double lung transplant, Lisa Ali of Cole Harbour, N.S., said she was scared to answer the phone, unsure of who would be on the other end.

For more than a year, she and her 20-year-old daughter, Tahlia Ali, had been living in Toronto waiting for the life-saving surgery that is not available in Nova Scotia.

That wait comes at an out-of-pocket cost for Nova Scotians — once a patient is put on the transplant list, they must move to Toronto, wait for th…