An ill Kelly Beckerley-Murphy is coming home to St. Catharines, but her daughter Shannon Horner said the family has faced unnecessary stress getting her here from Jamaica.
Horner said her 65-year-old mother departed for a weeklong vacation on April 5 and began having difficulty breathing shortly after arriving on the Caribbean island.
Two days later, her mom suffered respiratory failure and was rushed to a Montego Bay hospital by ambulance, where she has since been in critical condition on life-support in the intensive care unit.
After days of waiting for confirmation, Horner said her mother’s travel insurance provider, through CAA Niagara, approved covering the costs of her treatment and transfer to a hospital closer to home.
However, Horner said the insurance company told the family there was nowhere available to accommodate Beckerley-Murphy once she returned.
Horner said the family was told “there are no beds, so they can’t move her home — there’s not one spot in all of Ontario.”
But that was not the case, according to both Niagara Health and Ontario’s Ministry of Health.
In an email Monday, Niagara Health said its hospitals have capacity to accommodate Beckerley-Murphy.
Niagara Health said hospital staff “are aware of the situation and while we can’t comment on specific cases, we do follow our regular process to expedite the transfer if safe to do so.”
“Any delays are not a result of lack of ICU beds, as NH currently has capacity,” the hospital system said.
Hannah Jensen, deputy director of communications for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said “Ontario always has available critical care beds to care for those most critically injured.”
“If a patient has medical travel insurance and requires a critical care bed, the insurance company would contact CritiCall Ontario,” Jensen said.
“CritiCall will always find a bed available to treat crucially ill patients.”
She said the Ministry of Health-funded organization is an emergency consultation and referral service for hospital-based physicians in Ontario, caring for urgent or emergent patients who require care beyond a hospital’s resources.
CritiCall’s mandate includes facilitating and supporting the repatriation of Ontario patients who become critically ill or injured while travelling out of country, she said.
After the family’s concerns began drawing attention online, Horner said the health minister called her personally at 8:30 p.m. Monday to reassure her accommodations would be available for her mother.
She said Jones told her: “We are going to help get your mom home.”
Jensen said Jones also called Niagara Health president and chief executive officer Lynn Guerriero to confirm beds are available within the local hospital system and to ensure it is working with the insurance provider to relocate Beckerley-Murphy.
Jensen said “discussions are ongoing to successfully repatriate the patient.”
Horner said the family was notified Tuesday morning a bed is available at St. Catharines hospital and Beckerley-Murphy would be transferred home as soon as physicians in Jamaica “sign off that she is stable” enough to travel.
CAA Niagara is standing behind the information it provided the family.
Spokesperson Rhiannon Fleming said she cannot comment on specific situations due to privacy reasons. However, she said the insurance company, Orion Travel, “made the calls and that’s the information they had and were working with.”
“If that’s what they (the insurance company) told a member or an insurer, that’s the information they would have had,” Fleming said.
Horner said her mother had been suffering from Stage 3 lung cancer as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but after her condition went into remission and her doctor approved of her trip, she went on her vacation with a close friend.
She said her mother’s husband, Ted Murphy, recently travelled to Jamaica to be at her side.
Shortly after her mother was hospitalized, Horner launched an online fundraising account for her in the hope of raising money to help with the out-of-pocket cost of her treatment.
The cost of the ambulance alone was US$1,200, Horner said.
“After many attempts to stabilize her, she is now on a ventilator fighting for her life,” Horner wrote on the GoFundMe site. “Things have been incredibly stressful and difficult, having to deal with so much red tape in a different country.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the campaign had generated $2,500 of a $10,000 goal.
Beckerley-Murphy’s situation is not unique.
Global News reported on April 12 that Grant Rice, 69, of Calabogie, Ont., near Ottawa, has been in a hospital in San Jose, Costa Rica since April 10, while awaiting a hospital bed to become available in Ontario.
Global News said Rice was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder while spending the winter months in the Caribbean.
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