A nightmare holiday scenario has left a Calabogie man waiting in a foreign hospital without a plan to get him home.
Global News reports that 69-year-old Grant Rice was recently taken into emergency care in San Jose, Costa Rica, after developing numbness in his tongue, which quickly spread throughout his face.
He was later diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes nerve paralysis.
His daughter, Emma, who joined her father in Costa Rica back on April 9th upon hearing that he was not doing well, says they are stuck in the country because of a lack of available hospital beds in Ontario, despite having insurance at the ready and a plane available.
She says they’ve been trying to get a hospital bed in Ontario since last Wednesday but have heard no updates as of Friday, despite talks with government officials, the consulate, doctors, and a representative from Renfrew Victoria Hospital.
Emma would add that she doesn’t know “what would have happened had I not come here and advocated for him,” while also sharing her frustrations with not being able to get her father back into Ontario for care.
She calls it terrifying that “it’s simply that our country, where we have health care that we pay for with our taxes, is unwilling or unable to take him back.”
(written by Kasey Egan)