Mexican MDs refuse to set C.B. man's broken legs
Mom says doctors want cash up front
Apr 27, 2006
www.herald.ns.ca/Front/499228.html
SYDNEY — A Cape Breton woman whose son survived a fall from a sixth-floor balcony in Mexico says doctors there won’t set his broken bones without cash up front.
Carol Campbell says her son, Jason Campbell, broke both legs and his pelvis in the fall last Wednesday at a Mexican tourist resort in Puerto Vallarta, where he remains in hospital.
His mother says since then, the 25-year-old has been given only pain medication and antibiotics.
"My son is still laying there with broken legs, broken pelvis, bones coming out of his legs," the woman told Global News on Monday in Sydney.
"His legs are swelling worse than balloons, his eye, I donÂ’t know what state his eye is in, his teeth, heÂ’s bruised everywhere."
Jason Campbell was in Mexico with friends. His family admits he had been drinking before he fell.
His father, Wallace Campbell, says "all I know is, from the doctors down there, is he is going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life and as far as internal bleeding, they wonÂ’t let me know anything."
The family says doctors are demanding up to $40,000 to treat CampbellÂ’s broken bones.
His mother says he didnÂ’t have a health plan in Alberta, where he now works in the oil industry.
Now the family is trying to raise money to get him home.
"We have some fundraising going on in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Alberta," says Theresa Petrie, the young manÂ’s sister-in-law.
Carol Campbell says she has turned everwhere to get help for her son — the Canadian Consulate in Mexico, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, friends, family and politicians.
Gordie Gosse, an NDP member of the Nova Scotia legislature, says itÂ’s a sad situation.
"We have a Canadian citizen that’s stuck in a foreign country in very severely, bad shape at this time and needs medical attention right away — and has been injured now for almost a week, and has no medical attention."