Family and friends have set up a crowdfunding campaign for a Toronto mother who needs to return home for emergency surgery after suffering severe injuries in a fall off a cliff in Trinidad.
Elissa Antonio, visiting family on the Caribbean island, was enjoying an evening picnic at Las Cuevas Beach on March 28 when she went over the side of a cliff and fell 40 feet.
“I basically just walked over the cliff because I couldn’t see where I was going,” Antonio told CBC News from her hospital bed in Trinidad.
“I know I screamed out. I screamed for help as soon as I landed and I heard my cousins calling for me because they heard the fall.”
Her pelvis was broken in several places, her sacrum – which connects the pelvis to the spine – is fractured, and she suffered a fractured right leg and a broken right heel.
“I cannot move the lower part of my extremities,” Antonio said.
“I have to be fed, changed, given a bath. All these things that we take for granted.”
Elissa Antonio
Elissa Antonio suffered severe injuries in a 40-foot fall while visiting family in Trinidad. (Courtesy of Elissa Antonio’s family.)
Doctors in Trinidad have said that they cannot treat Antonio, who now needs an air ambulance for transport home. That will cost about $50,000.
Antonio did not have travel insurance and OHIP doesn’t cover the cost, and so family and friends are trying to raise funds in an effort to get her home.
As of late Thursday afternoon, more than $12,000 had been raised. Donations ranged from $5 to $1,000 from a local travel company.
“She is in constant pain and needs to get back to Canada for emergency surgery,” a plea on a Gofundme page says. “The longer she stays without surgery is the more likely she will not have a full recovery.”
Antonio’s aunt, Maria Parris, was in Trinidad when she got a call that her niece had fallen and was being taken to hospital.
Parris and her husband rushed to the hospital, but had to wait a long time to see her.
“And I can tell you honestly when I saw her, my heart dropped,” Parris, now back in Ontario, told CBC News.
“She looked grey. And she was obviously in excruciating pain, even though she had been heavily sedated.”
Seeing her niece lying in a hospital bed with such severe injuries left her feeling “shattered.”
“I was scared, ‘would she be able to walk again?'” Parris said. “She has two young girls. What was her future going to be like?”
According to Paris, the CT scan machine at the hospital wasn’t working when Antonio was admitted, so doctors could not see the full extent of her injuries.
Maria Parris
Maria Parris, aunt of Elissa Antonio, says her “heart dropped” when she saw her niece in hospital after her fall. (CBC News)
But looking at her complex fractures, her doctors said they did not have the necessary expertise to perform the surgery that she requires.
Antonio was shocked by the quick success of the crowdfunding campaign to get her home.
“I was overwhelmed with emotion from the time people started responding to what had happened,” Antonio said.
“I didn’t realize that so many people cared.”
Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said Thursday that his heart goes out to Antonio, but her case reinforces the importance of obtaining travel insurance.
Heading out of the country soon? There are some important things to keep in mind when considering travel insurance.
Ensure that you know exactly what is covered under the plan, and what is not. Some travel insurance does not include coverage for medical expenses, lost luggage or trip cancellation.
Be aware that a higher premium does not necessarily translate to better coverage.
Read the full fine print before making a decision.
Disclose all health conditions to reduce your risk of having a claim denied.
I hope she get home and can get the vital care she needs. I am shocked that Trinidad’s medical care cannot handle trauma cases and hospital equipment not working, guess nothing is ever as it seems.
I told my sister even if she crosses the border for one minute to make sure she has travel medical insurance. The extra $50 is nothing if you meet into something.
They should contact the Canadian embassy