Saskatoon family to be reimbursed for out-of-country medical fees
Global News
The provincial government is reimbursing most of the cost of life-saving brain disease treatment received by Kristin Finn's now-five-year-old son, Conner, in 2020.
A family from Saskatoon out nearly $832,000 in out-of-country medical expenses is breathing a sigh of relief Monday.
Kristin Finn says she was told by Health Minister Paul Merriman that the massive bill will be reimbursed by the provincial government.
The reimbursement will cover most of the cost of life-saving brain disease treatment received by her now-five-year-old son Conner in 2020. The international treatment had not yet been approved by the Ministry of Health when it was received.
“In terms of the cost of the transplant itself, they’ve agreed to cover the cost,” Finn said Monday afternoon, reference a stem cell transplant Conner received at a specialty clinic in Minnesota.
“I’m actually still in shock. I’ve sort of been walking around in a daze all day. We had hoped that they would look at the file and see that what we did was reasonable.”
In earlier interviews with Global News, Finn explained how, after Conner was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy, she and her husband searched extensively for a Canadian expert on the disease to no avail.
They did, however, discover a specialist working at the University of Minnesota.
After an MRI was completed in Saskatchewan, the family sent the results to the Minnesota clinic, where they were told by the specialist that Conner’s need for the stem cell transplant was urgent and the window for treatment was shrinking.