Medical travel should allow infants to fly with parents, says Inuvik mom

Priscilla Nogasak hasn't seen her infant son since December.

"It broke my heart. He's too small to be away from," she said.

Nogasak was due to deliver her fourth child in March, but on Dec. 4, doctors in Inuvik told her she was going into labour. She hasn't been home since, and says she would like the territory's medical travel program to allow her 1.5-year-old son to join her.

"The doctors in Inuvik said that if I delivered there, they wouldn't have the equipment to help the baby," said Nogasak.

"So I took a small medevac from here to Edmonton."

Her husband, Kevin St. Amand, arrived in Edmonton the next day.

Their son, Phoenix St. Amand, was born on Dec. 19 via emergency cesarean section, weighing two pounds four ounces.

The couple is still in Edmonton as Nogasak recovers from surgery and Phoenix continues to gain weight.

St. Amand flew home in January to visit their other children, who are staying with their grandparents in Tuktoyaktuk.

He asked the N.W.T.'s medical travel program if he could bring their infant child, Keaton, back with him to Edmonton but says he was denied.

"Both me and baby are doing good, and we didn't see any problems if we had our one-year-old with us," said Nogasak.

"But medical travel wouldn't allow it."

She said she was weaning Keaton off breast milk when she was medevaced, adding she doesn't understand why Keaton couldn't sit on her husband's lap, since children under two usually fly free on commercial airlines.

Children could distract escort

The N.W.T.'s Health and Social Services Authority wouldn't comment on this particular situation, but spokesperson David Maguire told CBC the medical travel policy usually doesn't allow children to fly with escorts "because they may impact the escort's duties in supporting the patient."

"In unique cases, individuals and families travelling for health services can work with medical travel program staff to determine alternative options to accommodate their individual needs," he stated.

Nogasak says the family has contacted medical travel multiple times about the situation, including as recently as last week.

She's still waiting on an answer.

"It's tough going without your little ones," she said, fighting back tears.

Nogasak says doctors in Edmonton are still concerned about baby Phoenix's breathing and it could be weeks before they go home.

"If I had the money, I told everybody I talked to that I would come and pick him up myself," she said.