Rural patients pay for health

Before her lung transplant, Christina Derksen-Unrau had difficulty walking 20 steps without feeling faint.

In a matter of four months, she went from 39 per cent breathing capacity to just 23 per cent, a number staggeringly close to requiring 24/7 hospitalization. She said if she didn’t receive donations, she wouldn’t have made it to Thanksgiving.

“I would have died,” she said.

At one point, she had to take her name off of the transplant list because she was unable to afford treatment.

Derksen-Unrau is one of thousands of rural patients who need to travel for critical care. For transplants, B.C. patients must access either Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, or BC Children's Hospital.

While the procedure is covered by the B.C. Medical Services Plan, related costs such as travel and housing accommodations, testing, and prescriptions are covered in varying degrees by organizations, depending on criteria and eligibility.

For Derksen-Unrau, testing alone, which included overnight hotel stays in Kelowna and Vancouver, cost her roughly $10,000. Further along in her journey, housing accommodations cost her $4,000 over 10 days, an average of $20,000 to $30,000 post-surgery.

On top of that, she said she needed to prove she had $40,000 to be eligible for treatment.

With her disability assistance and her husband’s employment insurance, the couple had limited options. She describes her entire lung cancer journey as more than a challenge.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Derksen-Unrau said.

“I went to bed, I said good night and goodbye to my husband, because I didn't know if I was going to wake up in the morning. That’s a pretty heavy burden.”

In spring, she was at her worst when she received an unexpected boost.

The community of Princeton rallied behind Derksen-Unrau by raising nearly $30,000 through her GoFundMe fundraiser.

Then, like a wish come true, Penticton business owner Gary Johal offered to pay any additional expenses, no matter the cost. Johal’s own father underwent kidney transplants, knowing the difficulties families face when trying to access treatment.

According to BC Transplant, 563 people across the province received a transplant in 2023. One-third of those people sought care from outside of the Lower Mainland.

“I went back active on the list was when [Johal] came forward and I went active on May 1,” Derksen-Unrau said.

She received a call for a transplant on June 23, and had it done the next day. She spent a couple of days in Kelowna General Hospital and over nine weeks in Vancouver General Hospital, coming home Labour Day weekend.

However, the Princeton resident said she was told she had to stay in Vancouver for the course of her treatment there.

“If you're going to mandate that I have to stay here for medical reasons, you should be taking care of me,” she said. “That should be the government's responsibility.”

Cost wasn’t the only barrier to care. Derksen-Unrau said she was fortunate to have her husband qualify to be her caregiver 24/7. Still, moving forward, Derksen-Unrau will be saddled with ongoing prescription and follow-up costs as a result of the transplant.

Now, she’s asking the province to fund critical care treatment for rural patients who need to travel for care.

She recently teamed up with the BC Rural Health Network, where she presented her case at the Union of BC Municipalities conference on Tuesday.

“We want funding to be in place from the provincial government that supports all transplant patients that have to relocate to Vancouver.”

Rural residents are being penalized for where they live, she said.

In a meeting with B.C. Premier David Eby earlier this year, the provincial government committed to more financial aid for rural critical care, as well as lobbying for federal support. It's something Derksen-Unrau said she's holding them to via reminder emails.

Post-surgery, Derksen-Unrau went home three weeks early, “blowing doctors away” because of her swift recovery. Being home is where she felt she needed to be to recover best.

Back in Princeton, she thanks the community for saving her life. She said no one deserves to die because they can’t afford to get well.

“You try to find a way to keep going, and you hope that that little light at the end of the tunnel will eventually turn into a big light so that you can have your life saved.

"I was one of the lucky ones where my life was saved. I know there's a lot of people that aren't going to be lucky enough to get that chance.”