Calgary retiree shot in Barbados robbery undergoes surgery but bullet still in spine
Return to Canada uncertain after vacationers targeted in home invasion
A Calgary man shot while on vacation in Barbados underwent surgery Tuesday, but uncertainty remains over his medical condition and when he might return home.
Ken Elliott, 65, was shot last Saturday night during a struggle with two masked would-be robbers who invaded his family’s rental home in Christ Church, Barbados.
His brother grabbed a machete wielded by one of the assailants and chased them off, while Elliott slumped to the floor, unable to feel his legs.
Elliott was then flown by air ambulance to the Broward Health Medical Centre in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where surgeons worked Tuesday to remove a blood clot in a lung damaged by the bullet.
“Ken came through the surgery on his lung today, we are just waiting for him to get back to ICU,” his wife, Linda Brooks, said in a Facebook
message.
“He went down to pre-op at 8 a.m. and he is still in recovery at 3:15 p.m.”
The bullet ended up lodged between Elliott’s third and fourth vertebrae. Brooks said doctors are reluctant to remove the bullet because it could add to the paralysis that extends below his clavicle.
But physicians are also concerned about infection if the bullet remains in Elliott’s body, said Brooks.
“(We) haven’t met with the neurologist yet, have no idea when we will be back,” wrote Brooks, in reference to possible spinal surgery.
She couldn’t say Tuesday when the couple might return to Calgary.
“We were told Canada is too far to go, that it would be unsafe for him to travel all that distance,” Brooks said.
The couple had just begun enjoying their retirement after decades of working for the City of Calgary, and had planned to do considerable cross-canada and international travel.
But Elliott’s crippling injury has put those plans in doubt, while Brooks said they might have to move from their Calgary home, a four-level split, due to mobility issues.
And there’s concern over rising medical bills spanning two countries.
“Hopefully, some of the travel insurance will cover it,” said Brooks.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a Gofundme page set up by one of Elliott’s former co-workers had raised more than $18,000 for his recovery.
A spokesman for the Royal Barbados Police Force said no arrests in the attack have been made.
“We’re still following all the leads and treating it like a very open investigation,” said a spokesman.
Brooks said she suspects the two attackers had cased their home the same evening as the attack.
She recalled a man, who she thinks may be one of the culprits, had walked past Elliott as he grilled pork chops for dinner and remarked on its pleasant aroma.
“He said they’d ‘be back,’” said
Brooks.
“I think we were targeted ... I’m certain there were two men who came by at that time.”
The couple had arrived in Barbados on Feb. 17 and planned to stay until March 9 for what was to be a family reunion vacation.
Members of the family have instead arrived in Fort Lauderdale to be with the couple.