Jerica Armitage's daughter Averi (left) is battling aplastic aneamia.

Image Credit: GOFUNDME

For Jerica Armitage, a mother and hospital staffing clerk from Salmon Arm, the hidden expenses of British Columbia’s medical system added an unexpected pressure to her daughter’s diagnosis.

Armitage’s 15-year-old daughter Averi was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia in December 2020. It's a serious but rare blood condition which prevents bone marrow from making enough new blood cells for the body.

The diagnosis came as a surprise to Armitage, who assumed her daughter’s extreme fatigue was a result of COVID and normal teenage tiredness.

“She had been at school and her friends were fooling around at the bike racks and she had fallen,” Armitage told iNFOnews.ca. “By the time she got home from school, her back looked like she'd been hit with like a baseball bat. It was very very bruised.”

Armitage sought medical advice and was scheduled to meet with a paediatrician a few months later. However, while waiting for the appointment, Averi’s condition declined.

“She was getting very dizzy. She would stand up and feel like she was going to pass out and she'd have to sit down in the shower,” she said.

Concerned, Armitage took her daughter to the emergency room.

“The paediatrician was there very quickly and obviously when they show up fast, you know it's not good.”

Averi was immediately flown to the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Armitage assumed it would only be a short stay but in reality she was away from home for a month and didn’t see her one-year-old baby during that time.

Throughout Averi’s treatment, Armitage and her daughter have had to travel back and forth from Vancouver serval times.

Last week, Averi received a bone marrow transplant from her father and must now stay in hospital for at least 100 days before she can be cleared to return home.

In the meantime, Armitage is staying at the Ronald McDonald House for free and is living on EI while her husband resumes his work as a tile setter in Salmon Arm.

“The financial pressure is immense,” Armitage said. “While we're in the hospital, of course, all of Averi's medications are covered and what not. But the medications for her condition are not cheap, they're extremely expensive.”

Armitage and her husband have already used up their medical insurance to cover the cost of Averi’s medication.

Now, they must pay thousands of dollars a month out of their own pockets, with two of Averi’s most expensive medications costing $800 and $5,000 a month, respectively.

On top of that, Armitage’s family caregiver benefits will only last five more weeks.

“There's a lot of cost. Even before I went on EI, I missed a lot of work. Because even between October and January, we had five trips down to Vancouver,” she said.

Without the aid of her support worker at the children’s hospital, Armitage says the financial pressures and stress may have been insurmountable.

“(It’s) really wild to me that... the medications just aren't covered through our healthcare,” she said. “And that it is so hard to try and secure compassionate dosing and insurance.”

To access Averi’s critical medications, her parents are faced with a mountain of insurance forms and paperwork as well as other expenses associated with long stays in Vancouver. 

“I had no idea that cancer and hematology families live in Vancouver for as long as they do,” she said. “There are families at Ronald McDonald House for a year, a year plus. We've been told four to six months. Hopefully, it's better than that. But some of these families are here for an extremely long time and they're separated because their other kids have school or people have to work.”

While Averi receives care in Vancouver, Armitage and her husband must still find a way to pay for their bills and mortgage back in Salmon Arm.

“Everyone on this floor still has to figure out a way to keep their life going at home and create a whole new one in Vancouver.”

To help supplement these costs, Armitage, like many others, has turned to online fundraising.

“It's not just, oh, Averi's in the hospital for a few months and she comes home. It's Averi's in the hospital, she comes home, I'll still be off work. Even when I go back to work it's missing work for doctors and labs and if she gets sick, it's the emergency room and being at home with her to try and just be there for her."

In the Okanagan region alone, there are dozens of donation pages for patients and family members seeking help pay for hidden medical expenses.

This is also the case for many parents who's children have been admitted at hospital in Vancouver.

“It's raw up here and sometimes a little cruel,” Armitage said. “We basically take them to the edge of death to save their lives, and it's a really difficult thing to knowingly do as a parent. But you don't have a choice and there aren't any other options and every family on this floor is living that reality every day of their lives.”

Despite the hardship she has faced, Armitage said her daughter has remained brave and strong throughout.

“Honestly, I could not be prouder of her,” she said. “Watching her as her mom, being sick through her conditioning treatment, she is kind and she is caring and she is lovely, and I couldn't respect her more for it. She's a wonderful child.”

Averi's recovery and treatment will continue and even after her bone marrow transplant, she could still face complications.

For now, Armitage is staying at the Ronald McDonald House with her young child and husband while Averi recovers from surgery.

“Averi hopefully will have a good recovery and a fast one but even once we're home, she will have treatment, she'll need to be in Vancouver regularly.”

Averi continues to receive high quality medical care. 

“The children's hospital is, I mean, it's a terrible place because children have to be here, but it is a wonderful place because in our experience of the programs and things that are available to us, they do nothing but try and support the families, help them, be there for them,” Armitage said.  “They do their best to make this place the least terrible it can be.”

Averi's online fundraiser can be found here.

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