Family searches for answers after London vacationer dies after health-care delay
Hala Ghonaim | CBC News | Posted: March 4, 2018 6:31 PM | Last Updated: March 4, 2018
'The question that kind of haunts me … could it have been different if he had come back right away?'
An ailing man from London, Ont., who had to wait in a Mexico hospital until his insurer could find him health care in Ontario, has died.
Stuart Cline, 71, was vacationing in Puerto Vallarta with his wife when he fell on Feb 21. and suffered excessive internal bleeding.
He stayed in an intensive care unit in a Mexico hospital for more than a week after his insurance company told his family there were no beds available at any London hospitals. He was stabilized to fly out on Feb. 24.
Five days later, his family was told there was a hospital bed available in St. Catharines, Ont., where he later died on Saturday.
"The question that kind of haunts me … could it have been different if he had come back right away?" questioned his eldest son, David Cline.
"Do we need to go through all that additional torment of just waiting? Having him sedated for so long, did that adversely affect his condition? ... We'll just never know those answers."
Stuart Cline was a longtime Subway franchise owner who managed six locations in London before his retirement.
Issue hits Queen's Park
The plight of the Cline family has put the spotlight on the condition of hospitals in Ontario.
London West New Democrat MPP Peggy Sattler raised the issue at Queen's Park last week and took to social media to express her concerns.
"Although it is too late for Stuart, we cannot allow this to happen to any other Ontarian," she wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.
"We MUST do better."
Ontario Health Minister Helena Jaczek said in the legislature last week that it was the insurer's job to find a space for their clients in the province.
RBC Travel Insurance told CBC News that the company called multiple hospitals in London, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls in order to find Cline a bed.
The Cline family has made funeral arrangements for Saturday in Thorold, Ont.