An Edmonton woman who contracted a flesh-eating disease in Mexico is stranded in Puerto Vallarta because her hometown doesn’t have a single hospital bed to accommodate her.
While vacationing in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast, a Canadian from Edmonton was diagnosed with a flesh-eating disease and underwent multiple surgeries.
But her family says when a plane waited to take her back to Edmonton, not a single hospital bed was available in the city to accommodate her, Global News reported on Wednesday.
On the second day of her trip, Maia Stock, 25, developed leg pain.
At the emergency room in Puerto Vallarta, doctors diagnosed her with necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease that put her at risk of losing her leg or even dying.
Puerto Vallarta doctors operated on Maia three times, removing bacteria from her leg in the form of gas bubbles that were eating away at her flesh. They rushed to get him off his bone to make sure his leg didn’t have to be amputated.
Doctors in Canada wanted to fly Maia back to Edmonton to continue her treatment, but despite being at the top of their priority list, she had nowhere to go.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) confirmed they were working on a transfer out of the country, but an immediate repatriation was not possible “due to capacity issues”.
Maia was hospitalized in Mexico for two weeks while waiting to be flown back to Edmonton. She was initially transferred from the intensive care unit to a single room and then finally discharged on Wednesday.
Maia may be able to fly home on an airliner on Friday if doctors give the all-clear.