Family of beaten N.W.T. woman upset she flew solo to Edmonton for treatment

The mother of a woman who was brutally attacked in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., last week says health staff allowed her daughter to fly unescorted to Edmonton for medical treatment.

Crystal Kudlak's family says she was beaten in the head by someone she knows and was flown out for medical treatment last week. Now they're trying to raise money so Kudlak's mother can be by her side in an Edmonton hospital, as she undergoes plastic surgery to repair her face.

"I was so upset," Emma Green, Kudlak's mother said from her home in Paulatuk. "I couldn't believe what was happening to her."

Kudlak's family says her face was unrecognizable, her speech was slurred and she had a shattered eye socket.

"She can't move her lips much but she slowly speaks and she says her cheekbones are broken. Her nose, around her jaw is broken. In one side of her eye, she said she can't see," Green said.

Green says she phoned hospital staff in Yellowknife and asked if she could accompany her 27-year-old daughter to Edmonton. She says she was told the territorial government doesn't pay for medical travel for relatives.

Green said her daughter was by herself during the flight to Edmonton, and when she landed she got lost in the airport.

"She said she was dizzy. She didn't know where to go," Green said.

A local Inuvik businessman, Vince Sharpe, has paid for a ticket for Green to fly from Inuvik to Edmonton to be with her daughter — the family has set up an online fundraising campaign to help pay for the flight from Paulatuk to Inuvik, and other travel costs.

Man arrested

RCMP say they won't comment about the case, but confirm an incident happened with a woman in the community early in the morning on March 31. They said the woman was medevaced out of the community, but they did not know where.

Police also confirm a man was arrested, but say he has not been charged.

RCMP would not say if the incident on March 31 was related to the fundraising efforts by Kudlak's family.

Medical travel policy

N.W.T. health department said it can't comment on the specific case due to privacy reasons.

According to the department's medical travel policy, a non-medical escort, such as a family member, will be authorized to travel with a patient when "the patient has a mental or physical disability of a nature that he or she is not able to travel unassisted." The minister can also approve exceptions to the policy.

David Keselman, the director of ambulatory care and medical affairs at Stanton Territorial Health Authority, said medical escorts, who are medical staff, are rare for scheduled flights. If required, the patient is typically medevaced rather than put on a commercial flight.

"It is not uncommon that people have limitations and all sorts of handicaps and they still continue to travel," Keselman said.

"Whether it be hearing, whether it be speech, whether it be any other handicap, people still travel on commercial travel without any escorts."

He said when a patient travelling for medical treatment lands after a scheduled flight, the residence or boarding home where they are staying offers shuttle pick-up from the airport. Patients are also driven to their medical appointments to and from the boarding home and the medical facility.