A Manitoba woman is fighting for the ability to walk again but is hitting yet another hurdle, this time financially, after Manitoba Public Insurance denied her funding for intensive spinal rehabilitation.
Brianna Seewald was driving home from a nursing night shift on Aug.17, 2020, when she was T-boned by a car trying to cross Hwy. 210, near the intersection at Hwy. 12 by the town of Ste. Anne.
“My injuries were quite severe at multiple levels,” she said. “So it is an absolute miracle that I am functional past the collarbone level.”
She sustained life-changing injuries including a broken neck, a broken spine in six places and has been using a wheelchair ever since.
The man in the other car was recently convicted of careless driving under the Highway Traffic Act and fined $1,000.
Intensive spinal therapy at a rehabilitation centre in Winnipeg could be her best bet to walk again, Seewald said. She would need to spend up to four hours a day, five days a week, with a senior therapist.
But each hour of therapy is around $100, which means it will cost between $6,000 and $8,000 a month.
“The problem with this is that it’s very expensive … and it cost far too great for (my fiance) and I to keep up with,” she said.
“I had to formally petition to Manitoba Public Insurance for spinal rehab and that was denied. So that was my chance. That’s my chance of walking again.”
Seewald said MPI denied the coverage she would need to get funding for the treatment because it is deemed an exercise-based therapy and not physiotherapy.
“This is not just rehab. This is my life. This is me walking down (the) aisle. It’s dancing at my wedding it’s playing with my future children,” she said through tears.
“It’s returning to my job as a nurse. It’s not just rehab, it’s my life and I feel there’s a great injustice being done that I have to beg for basic human rights.”
In a statement to Global News, MPI said because this particular clinic does not have in-house medical oversight of its program, it does not fit the parameters for funding approval.
“Such rehabilitation programs must have in-house medical oversight in order for MPI to fund rehab programs that are directly administered by a licensed physiotherapist, occupational therapist, athletic therapist, chiropractor or medical doctor,” MPI spokesperson Brian Smiley said.
Smiley added that case managers work with clients like Seewald to provide other options that are covered.
“In such a circumstance, the MPI case manager will provide the claimant with a list of clinics that have the appropriate practitioners to support their ongoing recovery,” he added.
While MPI has helped Seewald with a number of costs, she said this is just the latest in an ongoing battle to get services covered — from better wheelchairs that will fit through the doorways in her home, to basic bath fitting equipment she said took nearly three months to get.
“From the moment I’ve been home on, it has been just a constant battle.”
“I need this. It’s not a matter of want. It’s a matter of need (and) necessities that I’ve asked for,” she said.
Currently, she is sleeping in a hospital bed in her living room, waiting to see if MPI will cover an adjustable bed so she can sleep next to her fiancée.
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The 27-year-old isn’t just sitting by waiting. She believes the exercise-based therapy, which has been successful for others in similar situations, is her best bet for a full recovery.
Now her community is stepping up to fill the financial gap.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help her and her fiancée with their growing expenses and to allow her to start the essential therapy in the coming weeks and it’s already reached nearly $50,000.
“I knew that we may be able to get a few months of therapy paid for, but I think right now we have five months of rehab paid for,” she said.
“I get so emotional about it and it’s just so beautiful the way that our community has come together. I will never be able to thank these people enough for what they’ve done for me.”
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