Family of B.C. grandmother in coma in Chinese hospital fights to bring her home

A Vancouver woman is at her mother’s bedside in China after the Burnaby senior suffered a stroke while travelling to visit family.

Lilia Avoutova moved to Canada from China when she was a child, and settled in Burnaby. Recently, the 78-year-old grandmother reconnected with extended family in her birth country, and was excited to visit them this month with her husband.

“So, this was supposed to be their last trip to to come back and have that little last reunion with my mom’s family, and right after they flew into China, my mom got sick,” said Avoutova’s daughter Elena Lanteigne.

On March 6, Avoutova had a stroke and was taken to hospital in the city of Kunming. Her daughter rushed to China to be at her bedside.

“It turned out that she had a cerebral hemorrhage,” said Lanteigne. “My mom is still in a coma. She still hasn’t woken up.”

As Lanteigne struggles with a language barrier to get medical information from Chinese doctors, she’s faced with the daunting task of paying for her mom’s medical care in a foreign country. Avoutova is a Canadian citizen, and never pursued Chinese citizenship.

“In the ICU, it costs $1,000 a day,” Lanteigne said. “$1,000, Canadian, a day that we’ve been paying.”

Once her mom is stable, Lanteigne wants to fly her home to B.C. for ongoing treatment. But because of the cranial bleed, the cost is astronomical. She was quoted C$108,000 for medical staff to accompany Avoutova on a commercial flight, and US$275,000 for a private charter. It’s money the family doesn’t have.

“It’s just been really, really hard not being able to do what’s right for my mom and help her come home,” said Lanteigne, who spoke to CTV News from her hotel room in Kunming.

The family is an example of the dire financial consequences of not having travel medical insurance. Lanteigne had urged her parents to buy insurance for their trip to China, but they refused.

“I wish I had insisted more, but I don’t know if it would have changed their mind,” said Lanteigne. “When you deal with older people, significantly older folks, they’re pretty insistent on their opinions.”

She added she’s trying not to dwell on the “what ifs” of travel insurance, and the family is focused on the reality of having to pay Avoutova’s medical bills. A friend has started an online fundraiser to help.

“We want to do everything we can within our ability,” said Lanteigne. “It’s a little bit stressful thinking about if we borrow money and we can’t repay the loan, what happens? It’s a struggle, because we want to do everything we can to help my mom.”

She is hoping her mom’s condition improves enough that she can be moved to a rehab facility and, eventually, be cleared for a medical transport to Vancouver.

“From what we’ve gathered, maybe in about a month or two my mom should be well enough, as far as the cranial bleeding goes. We’re hoping that she’ll be well enough to travel back home,” she said.

That flight will be a huge financial hit for the family, but Lanteigne wants her mom back in Burnaby.

“My mom’s got four grandkids,” she said. “They miss her. They love her. They can’t wait to see her.”