The family of Burnaby senior Lilia Avoutova — who is stuck in China after suffering a major stroke shortly after arriving and has been in a medically induced coma ever since — has reported a small piece of promising news.
Elena Lanteigne, Avoutova’s daughter, says her mother opened her eyes briefly days ago and was able to move her hand a little bit.
As CityNews reported last week, this comes three harrowing weeks after 78-year-old Avoutova and her husband arrived in China to visit family.
Her family says Avoutova, who is of mixed Chinese and Ukrainian heritage, arrived in Kunming on March 4. She and her husband, 79-year-old Savout, were on their way to Avoutova’s birthplace of Xinjiang — an autonomous territory in northwest China — before she suffered the cerebral hemorrhage and stroke two days later.
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This small piece of good news, however, doesn’t solve the family’s problems. Lanteigne says her parents did not have medical insurance, and the cost of bringing her home is so high that it simply isn’t possible at this time.
“The amount of money that we’ve been quoted to bring my mom home has been just astronomical,” Lanteigne said last week.
It’s about $400,000 Canadian for a chartered medivac and more than $100,000 for a medically-supported commercial flight that she’s not even in a stable enough condition to take.
The second option would be very risky, doctors say. Because Avoutova has a cerebral hemorrhage, when the plane goes up to a high altitude, it can place pressure on the brain, making it “quite dangerous,” said Lanteigne.
She says 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 says 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.
Even without taking her mother home, the costs are an issue. Lanteigne says keeping her mom in ICU costs $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 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.
In addition to the financial issue, there is the added problem of a language barrier, making communicating with hospital staff a serious challenge.
“A lot of our conversations happen over Google Translate, and it makes it that much more difficult to get an understanding of my mom’s condition and her prognosis and where things are going and what we’re doing.”
Lanteigne says 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.
She says 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.
Now, Lanteigne says she has been talking to her mother about people who have been reaching out, just so she knows people are thinking about her.
“People are aware of who she is, and there are people who want to help,” she said.
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.”