Cancer patient misdiagnosed, then denied treatment

The daughter of a dying cancer patient is going public about how Ontario hospitals misdiagnosed her mother’s disease — delaying crucial treatment for months — then refused to operate. Her daughter believes they refused because her mom didn’t have health insurance.

“I was hurt, because it happened in Canada. It was not something that happens here,” said Angeliki Kourouclis, whose mother came here from Ethiopia to visit in 2012.

“I brought my mom to the hospital with the plan that I will be paying for the care that she will be receiving,” said Kourouclis, whose records show she has paid all the medical bills, to date.

“I never asked anyone to provide free care.”

To add insult to injury, Kourouclis believes diagnostic errors and delays led her travel health insurer to ultimately refuse to reimburse her for any of her mom’s treatment.

“It’s the argument they are using to not pay.”

Kourouclis is an information technology professional who lives in Mississauga, Ont. Her 72-year old mom Kelemua Esayase has come here several times in recent years to visit her two Canadian daughters.

When she arrived for her latest visit, her daughter said she was in good health for her age. She started having abdominal pain, though, so Kourouclis took her to the ER at Trillium Health Centre.

She said she made it clear she was willing and able to pay for whatever was needed, plus her mom had travel health insurance.

Read more at: CBC News