Health department, airline come through for Yellowknifer stranded in Montreal
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 16/01) - A Yellowknife women is ecstatic the territorial department of health and Canadian North are financing her injured husband's trip home from Montreal.
Annette Martin Hartis applauded the government after it agreed to pay for Peter Austin's flight from Montreal to Edmonton. He's sheduled to take the trip Tuesday.
Austin broke his lower back in a ski accident March 3. He's been stranded at a Montreal hospital for almost two weeks.
Canadian North and First Air offered to pay for the flight from Edmonton to Yellowknife. Canadian North's scheduled flight worked best, Martin Hart said. The airline is also flying Martin Hart to Edmonton to meet her husband.
"Both airlines did their utmost to help," she said."The support is just fantastic. Everyone is rallying around us."
The family ski trip turned into a medical and financial nightmare for the couple when Austin, 50, crushed lower vertebrae in a ski accident.
His stay at Montreal's Sacre Coeur hospital is not covered by his Northwest Territories medical insurance because Quebec is the only province not recognizing out of province/territory medical plans-- an agreement known as reciprocal billing, said Carol McKie, Health department spokesperson.
On Thursday, Quebec doctors said Austin was ready to go home. Because he's still unable to sit for long timeperiods, the couple wanted a medevac.
Martin Hart said Quebec hospital officials originally told the couple they would medevac Austin home, but have since changed their minds.
Quebec health officials said the $30,000 air ambulance flight, which would allow him to lie flat, was out of the question.
The hospital bill for Austin's two week stay could reach $20,000. A small, private insurance policy will hopefully recoup some of the costs.
Health Minister Jane Groenewegen was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
In the future, ski trips will not include snowboard jumps, which is how the experienced skier broke his back.
Austin offers the following advice to NWT residents visiting Quebec.
"Make sure you know there is no interprovincial agreement between Quebec andthe NWT when you travel. Get medical travel insurance."
