Quebec to step in for Montreal leukemia patient with expired health card
A Montreal woman suffering from leukemia may soon be saved from the deadly disease, with the Quebec government saying it would step in to pay for her expensive bone marrow transplant, despite the fact her immigration status has prevented her from renewing her medicare card.
"We are making an exception for humanitarian reasons," said Health Minister Gaétan Barrette, shortly after CBC/Radio-Canada broke the story of Djamilatou Maiga's plight. "This person needs this treatment, otherwise she'll die."
With no medical coverage, Maiga does not have the means to pay for a bone marrow transplant which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"I'm happy. I am extremely happy for the fact that I will get my bone marrow transplant. It's a relief honestly because it's been a few months of stress," Maiga told CBC/Radio-Canada on Friday evening.
"It's finally resolved...I want to thank a lot of people, starting with the Minister of Health Dr. Gaétan Barrette. I thank him for his humanity because he had to be human to understand the situation, and also thank you for the exception he made — because my situation is an exception."
Maiga moved to Canada from Mali nine years ago. She studied in Ontario, where she found out about her illness in February 2012. She moved to Montreal in January 2013 after obtaining a work permit.
Maiga's health care card expired in January, and she cannot renew it because her Quebec immigration file has been rejected.
"[Transplant operations] are quite expensive," said her doctor, Pierre Laneuville, of the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Laneuville said hospitals do not have the means to incur such costs on their own, and require the approval of the public health-care system.
Immigration file incomplete
With her Quebec work experience and Ontario university degree, Maiga thought she could have obtained a Quebec selection certificate, which would have allowed her to have access to its health care system.
The immigration ministry rejected her request for Quebec immigration in November 2014. A letter she received from the government said that some documents she had submitted were not in the right format.
Maiga then contacted the ministry to find out if she could immigrate without having to file a new request. She said a bureaucrat analysed her dossier again but could not find any solution for now.
Maiga said she could probably obtain immigrant status if she submitted a new request with the help of a lawyer, but she said immigration officials have already warned her process would take too long.
"The issue is that it's going to take a year or more, but I don't have a year or more because I have to get the bone marrow transplant as soon as possible," she said.
Laneuville confirmed the clock is ticking.
"Virtually everyone who has CML — uncontrolled — dies from the disease. For her, it's a life or death situation," he said.
Maiga's lawyer, Vincent Valaï, welcomed the news the government has accepted to foot the bill for her transplant.
He said the next step is to fly Maiga's sister, a compatible donor, to Montreal from Mali.
