It was supposed to be a joyous family reunion, but instead a British Columbia grandmother is stranded in China in a coma, her family unable to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring her home by air ambulance.
Lilia Avoutova, 78, who is of mixed Chinese and Ukrainian heritage, arrived in Kunming on March 4, her family said.
But she and her 79-year-old husband, Savout, both of Burnaby, BC, never made it to Avoutova’s hometown 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 at a Kunming hospital since March 8.
“It was really hard, 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 hard 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,” Lanteigne said, wiping away tears in a video call.
She said her mother had lived in China until she was about 10 years old 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 hoped to see them on what she expected to be her last visit to her homeland.
Communicating with doctors has been “extremely challenging” in China because of language barriers, Lanteigne said, forcing them to rely on Google Translate to understand her mother’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 a day, which has become a “heavy burden” for her.
Her retired parents live a “very frugal” life and don’t have much money at this point, she said.
“My brother and I have had some savings and we’ve been able to dip into that, but that’s starting to run out as well,” she added.
Lanteigne said it’s “extremely stressful” to think about finances and they still have to figure out the huge expense of bringing her mother home.
Lanteigne said they had gotten several quotes to get a medical transport flight, which basically works like an air ambulance equipped with a medical crew, so they could 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 mother to Vancouver from Kunming using a stretcher service on a commercial airline, and the costs would be about $108,800.
But it’s more dangerous because Avoutova has a cerebral hemorrhage, and when the plane climbs to a high altitude, it can put pressure on the brain, making it “quite dangerous,” Lanteigne said.
Lanteigne said her mother’s family doctor suggested the best option for now is to wait at least a month or two, allowing the bleeding inside her body to reabsorb, which would make it safer for her to travel.
Lanteigne said she is clinging to the hope that her mother can soon leave the ICU and move to the rehabilitation unit, allowing them to prepare to take her home in the next couple of months.
She said her mother 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 incredibly friendly,” Lanteigne said, adding that her grandchildren affectionately called her babushka, which means grandmother in Ukrainian.
When people visited Avoutova in her home, she served them tea and fed them.
“If she doesn’t have anything in her house, which is very rare, she’ll run to the store and find something in her closets,” Lanteigne said.
Although the last three weeks have been difficult, Lanteigne said they had some promising news days ago — her mother briefly opened her eyes and was able to move her hand a little.
“Lately, I’ve been talking to her about people who have reached out, and just to let her know that people are thinking about her. People are aware of who she is and there are people who want to help,” Lanteigne said.
Avoutova is also a grandmother of four grandchildren, and Lanteigne said she has played audio and video recordings sent by her grandchildren at her bedside, telling her they can’t wait to see their beloved “babushka.”
Lanteigne said her mother showed her what kindness and compassion are by spending her life caring for others, and now she must find a way to bring that home, no matter how difficult the process would be.
The journey is not easy, but Lanteigne said he was touched by the overwhelming response he received from Canadians through an online fundraising page.
“My friend suggested it, and I was like, I find it very difficult to ask people for money, to ask strangers for help.”
But the GoFundMe page has raised more than $16,000 as of Saturday, almost 70 percent of the goal.
“I’m amazed. I’m really shocked, so surprised by the sheer volume of people that have come out to help,” Lanteigne said.
“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. It’s so emotional, I can’t even put it into words. It was amazing to see.”
