Hospital won’t release Canadian’s body until $250k bill is paid

A Chengdu hospital is refusing to release the body of a Canadian woman who died there last month until they receive payment for the whopping medical costs that she racked up, according to the woman’s daughter.

38-year-old Alicia Garlock from Melfort, Saskatoon had started working as a teacher in Chengdu in September. Last month, she came down with a mysterious illness and was rushed to the hospital for surgery on her lungs, reported CTV News.

After the operation, she was put into a medically induced coma in the ICU where her condition fluctuated at death’s doorstep. Garlock’s 20-year-old daughter Remi Garlock-Cisna told CBC News that several times doctors had said that her mom wouldn’t make it, only for her to manage to pull through.

Last week, Remi left her mom’s bedside for a trip back to Canada, only to receive a call the day that she landed that her mother had just passed away.

Remi claims that the doctors were unable to confirm the exact reason for her mom’s death, though they explained that her mother had caught a new strain of influenza while already weak with pneumonia.

During her time at the ICU, Garlock racked up a massive medical bill which Remi estimates at $250,000. She says that the hospital has refused to transfer her mother’s body until that bill has been paid.

Garlock reportedly had insurance coverage through her work, but it’s not clear how much of the costs that will cover. Earlier this month, the local community in Melfort held a “chilli and a bun” fundraiser for her, raising more than $4,000 to help her family.

Last month, Garlock’s family launched a GoFundMe campaign which so far has raised more than $25,000 out of a $100,000 goal.

To make your contribution to the GoFundMe campaign, please click "Read More" at the bottom of this link.

TRENDING

EVENTS