Quebec’s air ambulance policy separating kids from parents reeks of paternalism – The Globe and Mail
February 06, 2018
“Barbarous,” “untenable,” “cruel” – just some of the epithets pediatricians are using to describe the Quebec government practice of denying parents the ability to accompany their children when they require medical evacuations from remote northern communities.
No parent – nay, no one with even half a heart – can be unmoved and outraged by the idea of a gravely ill child being whisked hundreds of kilometres away while their mother or father is left behind, not knowing if the child will live or die.
“Without his Mom. Alone in the air, his little brain stopped working. I never had the chance to say goodbye. When I finally arrived, it was too late,” Catherine Hudon wrote in a heart-wrenching letter published in La Presse.
An air ambulance was required to transport her almost three-year-old son, Matteo, from the remote Cree community of Chisasibi to Montreal. She was left at the airport, scrambling to find a commercial flight. In the 12 hours they were separated, Matteo’s condition deteriorated and he suffered brain death.
