Saskatchewan mom hopes Florida clinic can save her life

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For this Saskatchewan woman, it was akin to getting a last-hour call from the governor to spare her life.

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But now it’s a race to see what will come first for Jolene Van Alstine — life-saving surgery in the United States or medically assisted death in Canada.

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The Moose Jaw mom of a 25-year-old son tells the Toronto Sun she prefers Glenn Beck’s idea of getting her the much-needed surgery stateside over dying. Time will tell if Van Alstine will be able to get the medical help she so desperately needs thanks to the American conservative media pundit who went to social-media platform X to offer to pay for her travel to the United States if an American surgeon can step up.

She has been offered some hope at living but knows there are no guarantees. It was an up-and-down day for her on Wednesday. Jolene was dealt a blow when a specialist in Atlanta said he didn’t think he could do the surgery she needed.

That was the bad news. Then there was some good news.

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Florida clinic is looking at her case

“He did make a referral to someone in Florida,” Van Alstine said. “They think they can do it. They have had difficult cases there before.”

The Moose Jaw woman said no matter what happens with an offer to get her life-saving surgery in the U.S., she will always be grateful to Beck for caring about her.

“I greatly appreciate it. It’s an amazing offer and I can’t believe someone would do that,” the 45-year-old told the Toronto Sun from her hospital bed Wednesday night in Regina.

Now she’s hoping it can can happen.

“If we could go to the U.S. to do the surgery I would be so happy. I would have my life back,” she said in an interview. “I have had a tough eight years of (doing nothing but) going to the hospital and having blood work done. I have not been able to look after myself.”

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Constant pain led her to applying for MAID

Plus, she’s in constant pain as a result of her parathyroid disease called normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism — something she says causes vomiting and excruciating discomfort of her bones. Life for her has been a living hell and it’s the reason she went forward and applied for Canada’s MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) program.

With a glimmer of hope being offered from Beck, she hopes she won’t have to go through MAID. But if “it doesn’t work out,” she said she will proceed with MAID because she’s in too much discomfort. She’s actually in Regina General Hospital with bowel issues now.

“I am going to go through with the medical-assisted dying if it does not work out. I am in the hospital all the time,” she said, adding that, as a result of compounding issues because of her condition and “infections,” she “spent six months in the hospital last year.”

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Life is very hard for her. But in trying to save it, her partner, Miles Sundeen, has been speaking with Beck’s assistant, Sarah, who he said has been very supportive and hard-working. The next step, he said, is to see if the Norman Parathyroid Center near Tampa can help. And then there is the issue of whether they would be willing to perform the surgery for no cost, and also whether the couple can travel to the United States.

“We don’t have our passports,” Sundeen said. “We are told there are ways to get them issued quickly.”

This whole thing came out of nowhere thanks to generous Beck’s social-media post in response to some interviews Jolene had done about her plight and her call for help. As the Sun‘s Spiro Papuckoski reported, Beck went to social media to offer to pay to send her somewhere for medical help.

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Jolene said the Tampa clinic is a actually a place “we looked at going to” previously, but couldn’t get “accepted” because they were not able to get a referral from an endocrinologist — something she hopes can also be waived. One of the lessons of this story will be that it should not take someone with the clout of Glenn Beck to make sure any Canadian can get medical help.

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Jolene hoping for a miracle

This story is as much about red tape as it is about a lack of medical adequacy. As all of these quests for medical miracles are worked on, there is some irony in the fact that on Wednesday Jolene said she learned that her approved date to start the process toward going forward with medical assisted dying through MAID may not have been finalized.

“You are supposed to have two doctors,” sign off on it, she said.

It is possible she may have to restart that process but she is hoping it won’t be necessary thanks to an American commentator’s offer.

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