Yellowknife (Jan 12/05) - Jennifer Moss is fighting a two-front war: a battle to survive heart failure on one side and a conflict with the territorial government over medical payments.

Sitting in the living room of her subsidized townhouse, Jennifer Moss points to a vivid 15-centimetre scar running across her chest, just above her heart.

Jennifer Moss says that after heart surgery, she was abandoned by the territorial government. She is pictured here with her sons Ashton and Preston. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

Last year, surgeons in Edmonton inserted a pocket-sized defibrillator into her chest cavity after they discovered that at just 25, her heart was failing.

"Sometimes, I stay awake at night and wonder why this is happening to me," she said. "What did I do to deserve this?"

The machine shoots an electrical pulse through her heart to stop it from slipping into cardiac arrest - a sensation Moss said feels like getting kicked in the chest by a horse.

But for Moss, the procedure was just the beginning of a six-month-long battle with the territorial government over medical payments. The struggle has left the single mother of two wondering if she will live to see her kids grow up.

"If I die and my kids are left alone, it will be their responsibility," Moss said of the territorial government.

"They didn't help me."

Moss' medical odyssey began in June, when the third-year education student at Aurora College began to feel drowsy and short of breath.

Doctors originally attributed the symptoms to asthma, a condition Moss had been diagnosed with years earlier.

But when the problems persisted into July, Moss went to Stanton Territorial Hospital where doctors made a startling discovery: her heart was twice its normal size and her lungs were filled with fluid.

Moss and her two children, aged seven and two, immediately flew to Edmonton where a series of tests revealed her heart was permanently damaged and functioning at less than half its normal capacity.

In medical language, she was suffering from stage four of the five-stage continuum of congestive heart failure.

Doctors told Moss the damage had most likely been caused by the stress of childbirth or a virus that attacked the lining of her heart.

They explained to her that she'd need a new heart within three years - or she would die.

"I could not believe what I was hearing," Moss said. "I began to cry when I thought about the possibility of my children growing up without a mother."

After nearly a month in hospital, her condition improved. Moss went to live at her parent's house in Edmonton.

Doctors explained, though, that her heart was not strong enough to make the trip back to Yellowknife.

Moss was told by officials in the Northwest Territories Department of Health and Social Services that she qualified for extended health benefits, which amounted to $68 per day for food and lodging. But while Moss convalesced in Edmonton, trying desperately to lose the 100 pounds doctors told her she would have to shed before being eligible for a heart transplant, she said she was "abandoned by my government."

Nearly a month into her stay, Moss still had not received a single benefit payment from the Department of Health and Social Services. Repeated calls to her case worker were met with promises that the money was on its way, or at times, totally ignored, Moss said. When Moss spoke with a supervisor in late August, she was startled to hear there was no record of her account.

"I could not believe what they were saying," Moss said. "I had been dealing with them for two months and all of a sudden they said nothing was on file. It was more than I could take."

Moss called her MLA, Charles Dent, who approached officials in the Department of Health and Social Services to, in his words, "speed things along."

"I thought it was taking too long to get answers," Dent said last week.

"In an ideal world, MLAs would not have to field those calls," he said.

Within days, Moss was contacted by officials with the department and by mid-September she received a $2,400 check, which covered more than five weeks in back payments.

The problems, according to Moss, did not end there. With her parents about to leave for vacation, she requested the Department of Health and Social Services pay to fly a friend from Yellowknife to Edmonton to help care for her.

Moss could still barely walk up a flight of stairs and could not lift anything more than 10 pounds.

A letter from her doctor to the territorial government said that while her condition was improving, she could not be left alone. According to territorial legislation, out-of-territory patients are entitled to an escort if they cannot care for themselves.

The department originally turned down the request. It was only after weeks of lobbying that officials finally agreed, Moss said.

"I was being bounced from one part of the department to another," Moss said.

Erin Stevens, manager of medical travel with the Department of Health and Social Services, said she could not comment on the details of Moss's case for confidentiality reasons, but said the department's principles were applied "fairly and consistently."

"She received everything she was entitled to within her benefits category," Stevens said.

"And given her unique circumstances, she was treated flexibly within the policy."

While disability payments from the department came as scheduled in September and October, they stopped in November. Moss was told procedural changes delayed the checks for nearly a month.

"Meanwhile, I still had bills accumulating," she said. "I can't imagine how anyone in a situation similar to mine would be able to survive without their parents."

Moss returned to Yellowknife in early January, but she now faces her most difficult task: shedding another 50 pounds, while raising two kids and making a car payment on just $1,000 per month from welfare - nearly half her income as a full-time student.

"Food alone costs me $700 per month," said Moss, who requires a special sodium-free diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables.

"It is impossible to pay for everything," she said. "I have no idea how I am going to do it."

Her request for additional food money was turned down last week. Moss is still unable to work.

"To be dicked around by the government is unfathomable." Moss said, pointing towards a stack of application forms, doctor's letters and correspondence.

Her voice rising in anger, Moss said she is frustrated by the constant battle with government officials over money.

"If it wasn't for my kids, I would have given up," she said.

"I feel like my life is secondary to bureaucratic procedures."