Comatose man returned to family in Nova Scotia
A man who remains in a coma after a savage beating in an Alberta remand centre has been flown home to be closer to his family in Nova Scotia.
Dylan Gogan has been in a medically induced coma at the University of Alberta Hospital since early March after he was attacked by three men at the Peace River Correctional Centre.
He was found unresponsive in his cell by corrections staff and airlifted to Edmonton. The 28-year-old had been in remand after being charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault on March 6 after a man was stabbed in Grande Prairie.
After he was hospitalized, Gogan’s family were left in limbo because Nova Scotia did not recognize Gogan as a resident because he had spent a majority of his time in and out of correctional facilities in Alberta since 2017 and was not covered by the Maritime province’s health-care system. Four days after Postmedia told his story and the family’s plight, he was on a plane back to his home province.
“A lot of pressure has been relieved,” his mother Christine Arsenault said in an interview Friday from Amherst, N.S. Arsenault first received a call from the hospital in Edmonton about 11 p.m. Tuesday night alerting her that plans were afoot for an inter-hospital transfer. An ambulance rolled up to the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre on the southern edge of Amherst at 7:30 p.m. the next day carrying Arsenault’s son.
“I was so overwhelmed. It was everything just to be able to see him,” she said. “I hadn’t seen him in over two months and there was no way of communicating with him. My nerves couldn’t stand it much longer.”
While she and her family are unsure of what will happen next (Gogan suffered an axonal brain injury that may require aroundthe-clock care for the rest of his life) Arsenault is just happy to be able to drive the 12 kilometres to visit her son.
“They are taking such good care of him here. It’s really good to have him here and to be able to make sure that his daily needs are being met,” she said. “It’s such a huge relief to have him close. We were so worried that he was going to be lost in the system.”
All charges against Gogan have been stayed due to his medical condition but his co-accused in the Grande Prairie stabbing, Stephanie Plamandon, still faces charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault.