Helen had
carcinoids in her lungs for nearly 40 years. Although technically cancerous, they grow so slowly they are not treated like cancer. She fell in her bathroom in 1972, thinking she might have cracked a rib, she went to the hospital for an X-ray. There were no broken bones, but growths in her lungs were found. She had surgery, removing the lower part of her right lung. Although she didn't seem to have any
noticeable breathing problems from the
cardinoid growths for a long time, by 2006 she was starting to use oxygen at home. She died on September 29, 2008 of acute respiratory failure at Weiss Memorial Hospital.
Helen is buried at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois with her husband Larry and her parents Alex and Nell Sullivan.
