B.C. woman says she can’t get transplant because of cost to stay in Vancouver

A B.C. woman says she can’t access the life-saving transplant she needs because she can’t prove she has enough money in her bank account.

“I don’t have enough money to save my life. In B.C., in Canada,” said Christina Derksen-Unrau.

“It’s totally unfair because my life isn’t any less valuable than anybody else’s, but I am being made to feel like it is.”

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The Princeton resident suffers from asthma, emphysema and lung cancer, and a lung transplant is her “last option” to survive.

The pre-operative care process has been difficult, involving dozens of trips to Penticton and Vancouver.

“I’ve gotten a lot sicker in the last six months,” she said.

“I go for regular testing, and between October and January, I went from 38 per cent breathing to 30 per cent. If I hit 22 per cent I am in the hospital until I get new lungs.”

In December 2022, Derksen-Unrau was told she was a candidate for transplant, but the approval came with a catch.

She was told she would need to live in Vancouver for four to six months after the transplant and would have to prove she had enough money to do so before the surgery could proceed.

She was able to raise $20,000 through a crowdfunding campaign in which the small Princeton community “stepped up huge,” but said it still wasn’t enough.

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“If you can’t prove that you have a way to take care of yourself and your caregiver when you are restricted to live in Vancouver, if you can’t show you have that in place, they won’t put you on the list,” she said.

“I had to open the (bank) app on my phone and show the doctor that we met with.”

When Derksen-Unrau asked the transplant team if she would be listed even if she couldn’t come up with the money, a social worker told her by email: “You need to let us know that you will be able to cover the costs of your housing arrangements and other living expenses for 3-6 months in Vancouver. This commitment is required for all lung transplant patients.”

Global News raised Derksen-Unrau’s claims with the Ministry of Health, which oversees BC Transplant, and Vancouver Coastal Health on Friday.

Despite two days of notice, Health Minister Adrian Dix would not address Dersken-Unrau’s allegations.

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“It seems to be the most egregious inequity that somebody can possibly face; you are being just told your life is going to end unless you have this amount of money,” said Paul Adams, executive director of the B.C. Rural Health Network.

“It’s not even that you need to have a transplant. It’s that you need to have a transplant and you have to live in Vancouver.”

Adams said under the Canada Health Act, everyone is supposed to be guaranteed equal access to care, regardless of where they live.

He said the province’s health system, which has a $30-billion annual budget, should be covering related costs for the estimated 150 transplant patients a year who are forced to relocate to the city for care.

“That’s a drop in the bucket,” he said. “How much money is it going to cost us to make sure these people get the care they need in the most critical time in their life?”

Derksen-Unrau, meanwhile, said she’s unwilling to ask her community for more money. She and her husband have considered selling their vehicles and their home, but that would leave them in an even more difficult position, she said.

Instead, she’s appealing to the province to change its transplant policy.

“Mr. Dix, if it was your wife and you didn’t have access to money, but it was the only way you could save her life, what would you do? How would you feel if the health-care system was letting you down?” she asked.