Oct 30, 2009 - 12:10 PM

By Reka Szekely

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AJAX -- A Durham woman is desperate to get her mother home from a Miami hospital but she's been told there are no beds for her locally.

Oshawa resident Susan Corson's dream wedding in Cuba turned into a nightmare when her mother, Ajax resident Jean Coop Corson, suffered a stroke on Oct. 18. She was taken to a Cuban hospital for treatment, but on Oct. 20, instead of being transferred home to Canada, she was airlifted to a hospital in Miami, Florida because there were no beds available for her here.

"She is mostly paralyzed on the right side of her body, her arm and her leg, she has gotten a little bit of movement in fingers," said Ms. Corson.

Doctors said her 64-year-old mother would need about a month in hospital plus several months of physical therapy.

As of Oct. 25, the Miami doctors gave the OK for Ms. Corson's mother to be transferred back to Ontario, but she remains in Florida as there's still no bed for her here.

"I've basically been on the phone since Sunday, begging and pleading with everyone to try and get her home," said Ms. Corson. "There's nowhere to bring her and now she's stuck in Miami, with no money and alone."

When Jean Coop Corson was initially transferred to Miami, a family friend travelled with her because both Ms. Corson and her brother had children with them in Cuba and the country has strict rules about parents travelling with their children. Ms. Corson flew to Florida on Friday morning to be with her mother.

The insurance company did not cover the cost of the flight because Jean Coop Corson could be transferred home any day, but Ms. Corson said she was unwilling to wait and leave her mother alone. She said her mother is scared and the stress of the situation is driving up her blood pressure.

"Tomorrow's my son's third birthday and I have to leave him so I can go," she said on Thursday afternoon.

Ms. Corson said bureaucratic red tape means her mother is waiting for a local hospital bed, but she'd be fine with her being transferred to anywhere in Ontario.

"I can drive to Markham, I can drive to Bowmanville, I could drive to Hamilton if I had to," she said. "It's beyond me that someone can pay their taxes in Ontario for 40 years and can't get a hospital bed to come home to."

Calls to the Ministry of Health for comment on the situation were not returned.