No Ontario bed for man hurt in Costa Rica
‘We are at a loss of what to do,’ says distraught family member
A Hamilton man seriously injured in the Costa Rican jungle just wants to come home.
The family of Dofasco retiree David Ronald say he can’t get back to Ontario because no hospital in the province has a bed for him.
“We are at a loss of what to do,” said daughter-in-law Shannon Ronald. “How are we unable to get a Hamiltonian in critical condition home? Completely disgusted in the health care system. Please help us get him home.”
Minister of Health Dr. Eric Hoskins disputed the family’s claim in a statement Wednesday, saying intensive care unit beds were available in the Hamilton area around the time of the Feb. 15 accident that left Ronald with a broken pelvis, back and arm. However, Hoskin’s office can’t confirm exactly how many beds were open or on which days.
“I want to express my deepest concern for this family as they go through this difficult experience,” he said. “What is important now is that we make the full service of Ontario’s health care system completely available to this family.”
However, as of Wednesday night Ronald was still at CIMA Hospital in
San Jose with no word of a hospital bed in Ontario.
“Imagine being hurt, broken bones in a bed in a foreign country and all you really want to do is get home,” said NDP Leader and Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea Horwath. “But you can’t because there is no space available for you. That is just so wrong.”
Horwath stood behind the family’s version of events, holding a news conference Wednesday morning in front of Hamilton General Hospital to bring attention to the plight of the 58-year-old East Hamilton grandpa who was vacationing with his wife Kristen Ronald.
“He and Kristen are still stuck in Costa Rica,” said Horwath. “We need to bring Kristen and David home right away.”
The couple was on a two-week dream vacation visiting a friend in Pavones, a remote village on the southern Pacific coast surrounded by rainforest. He accidentally fell nearly four metres from a second-floor deck of his friend’s home after waking in the night. His wife and friend lifted him onto a board and took him to the closest medical centre in the back of a pickup truck.
“He was conscious the entire time,” said his daughter-in-law. “At the time, he didn’t know if he was paralyzed or even going to live. I can only imagine how much pain he was in.”
He was airlifted to CIMA where he underwent two surgeries for his pelvis and arm. She said doctors there suggested he go back to Canada for a third surgery on his back. The medical transport was in place but the travel insurer could not find a bed for him. Eventually, the back surgery was done successfully in Costa Rica
“They said, ‘There are zero ICU beds,’” she said. “It just blows my mind. How can there not be one bed to bring him home?”
The minister’s statement says there
were an average of 10 ICU beds open in the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network “this past weekend.” But it’s not clear if any were open during the window of time Ronald could be transported before surgery.
Hoskins suggested the insurer might be to blame, “We cannot verify whether the insurer contacted all hospitals in the region.”
But his daugther-in-law says both Ronald’s insurer and doctors thoroughly searched.
“We tried everything,” she said.
A direct plea was made to Hamilton General after a provincial registry of available beds came up with nothing. Hamilton Health Sciences didn’t respond to The Spectator’s request for information. Horwath blamed Ontario’s chronic hospital overcrowding.
“Dangerous overcrowding and hallway medicine are now the normal in Hamilton and across Ontario,” said Horwath. “We need hospitals that have room for Ontarians when they need them the most.”
Ronald is now out of intensive care but he faces eight to 10 weeks of rehabilitation.
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It just blows my mind. How can there not be one bed to bring him home? DAUGHTER-IN-LAW SHANNON RONALD