London man stuck in Mexico a week waiting for hospital bed in Ontario dies

Stranded for a week in Mexico until the Ontario government could find him a hospital bed, Londoner Stuart Cline has died, his family says.

A longtime Subway franchise owner who retired five years ago, Cline and his wife enjoyed wintering in Puerto Vallarta. Even before his collapse nearly two weeks ago, Cline suffered from serious medical conditions that left him depending on a pacemaker and blood thinners.

The 71-year-old Cline survived an initial fall in Mexico that burst blood vessels in his brain Feb. 21. He had surgery to drain the blood and on Feb. 24, Mexican doctors stabilized him enough to withstand a flight to Canada.

But Cline was stranded for days in Mexico, his family says, and a bed was only freed up March 1 in St. Catharines after The Free Press first reported his plight the day before.

“(Being ) here is a nightmare and we feel so alone we can’t believe nobody can do anything for us. My (father-in-law) is very weak. His heart is not doing well. He is fighting but I don’t know for how much longer. He (can’t) wait for a bed. We need to fly him back to Canada,” Alejandra Cline wrote early last week in an email to London West NDP MPP Peggy Sattler. Sattler said she sought help from new Ontario Health Minister Helena Jaczek and those who oversee health care in the London region, the South West Local Health Integration Network. But a staffer in the minister’s office sent a reply that Sattler described as a “brushoff ” letter.

Sattler later questioned in the legislature Premier Kathleen Wynne and Jaczek, and though both apologized, the minister cast blame on a private insurer. Cline wasn’t the first Ontarian with medical needs stranded abroad this year. David Ronald was badly hurt in Costa Rica this month and unable to return home to Hamilton because of capacity issues in his local hospital. Only two weeks ago, Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek — the Progressive Conservative health critic at Queen’s Park — stepped in to help a constituent who needed a blood transfusion while vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

His heart is not doing well. He is fighting but I don’t know for how much longer. He (can’t) wait for a bed.