OXBOW - Fenella Powell moved to Canada on Aug. 13, 2019, with her husband Vivian Powell and their three children Hayden, Katelyn and Merissa.
They lived in Kolar Gold Fields, a town in south India that is most famous for its gold mines.
Powell works at the Galloway Health Centre in Oxbow as a continuing care aid and Vivian is employed at Oxbow Tire.
Their oldest son Hayden is graduating from Oxbow Prairie Horizons School and plans to attend the University of Calgary to become a nurse. Powell had her parents Gordon and Grace Kelman over from India to celebrate this special occasion.
They also had Vivian’s parents here and they all stayed at the Powell home.
Powell said it got a little busy at times having nine people in the house, but the parents were great with helping with the household chores, cooking meals and general everyday things. Powell’s parents have always been pretty healthy except for being diabetics, which has been quite manageable, according to Powell.
At the end of April, Powell’s 70-year-old mother became ill with pneumonia and was taken to the Redvers Health Centre, where she remained overnight for observation. The following day she returned home and seemed to be improving.
On June 5, Grace had stomach pain and said it was so intense it felt like labour pain that was going into her back, so Powell gave her some pain medication and it seemed to subside. The following morning, Powell left their home early for appointments in Estevan and did not return home until late in the afternoon.
During this time, she did not know that her mother's condition had worsened; Grace Kelman had been throwing up all day and Gravol was not working. Powell took her mother to the Galloway Health Centre in Oxbow, and they kept her overnight and gave her intravenous fluids as she was dehydrated. They also ran a panel of bloodwork.
It showed that Grace’s kidneys were not working properly, and Grace needed to go to Regina. They drove her as the cost for an ambulance was $2,000, which they can't afford.
They drove her to the Regina General Hospital and while they waited for a doctor, Grace became very sleepy as her blood sugar dropped.
By the time a doctor saw her, she was not in good shape. They ran bloodwork again and found her kidneys and heart were failing. Grace’s lungs were filling with fluid and she was placed on oxygen.
Due to some of the symptoms Grace was having, they placed her in isolation and did a COVID-19 test, which was negative, but she remained there.
“This was the worst day of my life,” said Powell. “I was afraid I was going to lose my mom.”
Powell remained at her mother's side throughout her stay at the Regina General, and she was discharged on June 23.
With having antibiotics and plenty of rest, Grace is on the road to recovery and was home in time for her grandson’s graduation, but now there is an extremely expensive hospital bill to pay. The Powells could not afford the insurance for her parents due to their age and diabetes.
Plus, their son is headed off to university, which was another expense they needed to cover, and Powell said they have regular jobs.
They already have the invoice for one hospital stay and it is $1,320, which is one night, and they are afraid of the one from Regina as it was 16 days. They believe it will be well over $20,000.
Because of all the testing, ranging from blood cultures that happened a couple of times a week, to CT scans, COVID-19 tests, and being in isolation, they know this bill will be extremely expensive, and they do not know how they will pay for it. Also, Powell did not work during this time.
Christie Parker, a co-worker at the health centre, organized a GoFundMe page for the family as she wanted to help in some way.
She is hoping that people will open their hearts and wallets to help a family in need.
The Powell family is very thankful to those who have donated and to everyone who helped them during this stressful time.
Powell became very emotional as she discussed how grateful she is to still have her other and to be able to celebrate her son’s graduation as a family.
Her parents will return to their home in India on July 21, and it is Powell’s hope that her mom will be well enough to travel and will continue to improve each day.
As of Thursday afternoon, the campaign had raised $3,185 of its $10,000 goal.
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