It was supposed to be a joyful family reunion, but instead a British Columbia grandmother is stranded in China in a coma, her family unable to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring her home via air ambulance.
Her family says Lilia Avoutova, 78, who is of mixed Chinese and Ukrainian heritage, arrived in Kunming on March 4.
But she and her 79-year-old husband, Savout, both from Burnaby, B.C., never made it to Avoutova’s birthplace of Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwest China, after she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and stroke two days later.
Daughter Elena Lanteigne said her mother has been in an induced coma in a Kunming hospital since March 8.
“It was really tough, so the reunion never happened,” said a tearful Lanteigne, speaking from Kunming where she and her brother have been for about three weeks.
“It’s really tough to see your loved one in a hospital bed and intubated with all these instruments around them, and not knowing how they’re doing and if they’re going to survive and if they’re going to do well,” said Lanteigne, wiping away tears on a video call.
She said her mother had lived in China until she was about 10 when Avoutova’s father’s farm was confiscated by the government.
The family moved to Kazakhstan, where Avoutova married and had her children, before the family moved to Canada about 30 years ago.
Lanteigne said her mother had reconnected with her relatives in China in the past 10 years and was hoping to see them on what she expected to be her last visit to her hometown.
Communicating with doctors has been “extremely challenging” in China due to the language barriers, Lanteigne said, forcing them to rely on Google Translate to understand her mom’s conditions.
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She said her parents didn’t buy any travel medical insurance, and now the ICU in China costs about $1,000 per day, which has become a “heavy burden” for her.
Her retired parents live a “very frugal” life, and they are pretty much out of the money at this point, she said.
“My brother and I have had some savings, and we’ve been able to dip into those, but that’s also started to run out,” she added.
Lanteigne said it’s “extremely stressful” to think about finances, and they still need to figure out the big expense of bringing her mom home.
Lanteigne said they had got some quotes for getting a medical transport flight, which basically functions as an air ambulance equipped with a medical crew, so that they can bring her mom home right away, but the costs are about $400,000, which they can’t afford.
There is another option available — transporting her mom to Vancouver from Kunming by using stretcher service on a commercial airline, and the costs would be around $108,800.
But it’s riskier since Avoutova has a cerebral hemorrhage, and when the plane goes up to a high altitude, it can place pressure on the brain, making it “quite dangerous,” said Lanteigne.
Lanteigne said her mom’s family doctor suggested the best option right now is to wait at least a month or two, allowing the bleeding inside the body to reabsorb, which would make it safer for her to travel.
Lanteigne said she is clinging to the hope that her mom can leave the ICU soon and move to the rehabilitation unit, allowing them to prepare to take her home in the next couple of months.
She said her mom is one of those people who can make friends with anyone, and wherever she goes, people are naturally drawn to her.
“People want to talk to her, get to know her. She’s just extremely friendly,” said Lanteigne, adding that her grandchildren fondly called her babushka, meaning grandmother in Ukrainian.
When people would visit Avoutova at her home, she would serve tea and feed them.
“If she doesn’t have anything in her house, which is very rare, she will run to the store, and she will find something in her cupboards,” said Lanteigne.
Although the past three weeks have been tough, Lanteigne said they did have some promising news days ago — her mom briefly opened her eyes and was able to move her hand a little bit.
“Lately, I’ve been talking to her about people who’ve been reaching out, and just so that she knows that people are thinking about her. People are aware of who she is, and there are people who want to help,” said Lanteigne.
Avoutova is also a grandmother of four grandchildren, and Lanteigne said she has been playing audio and video recordings sent by her grandkids next to her bed, telling her that they can’t wait to see their beloved “babushka.”
Lanteigne said her mom showed her what kindness and compassion are, spending her life caring for others, and now she must find a way to bring her home, no matter how difficult the process would be.
The journey isn’t easy, but Lanteigne said she was touched by the overwhelming response she got from Canadians through an online fundraising page.
“My friend suggested it, and I was like, it seems really awkward, asking people for money, asking strangers for help.”
But the GoFundMe page has raised more than $16,000 as of Saturday, almost 70 per cent of the goal.
“I’m just blown away. I’m really shocked, so surprised by the sheer volume of the people who have come out to help,” said Lanteigne.
“And I really appreciate that. I think it’s just been incredible, and it just shows the incredible human spirit that people have for each other. That’s so heartwarming, I can’t even put it into words. It’s been amazing to see that.”
