Woman undergoes surgery in Mexico because of 'significant capacity challenges' in Edmonton hospitals

A beachside holiday took a scary turn for one Edmonton family, with the situation made worse because all of the hospitals in the Alberta capital were too busy to help out.

It all started when Curtis Stock and his family went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a 10-day vacation.

While in the Mexican resort area, his 25-year-old daughter Maia began to feel ill.

"On the second day Maia complained about a pain in her leg. We took her to the doctor at the resort and the doctor took one look at her leg and sent her to emergency at Puerto Vallarta Hospital," Stock told CTV News Edmonton.

The pain turned out to be a flesh-eating disease called necrotizing fasciitis.

Stock said the doctors told Maia if the bacteria spread to her bone she could lose her leg or even die.

"She had been so good and so happy the day before and for that to change around that quickly was unbelievable," he recalled.

An air ambulance was on standby for Maia to be brought back to Edmonton for emergency surgery but Stock said that didn't happen because the family was told there was no hospital space for her.

Stock came back to Edmonton while Maia's mom stayed with her.

Due to patient confidentiality, Alberta Health Services wouldn't comment on the case specifically, but a spokesperson said patients can only be transferred home if resources are available to care for them.

"When a family requests an out-of-country transfer, and provided the patient is stable enough to be transferred, we will do our best to work with the family and health insurance providers to repatriate patients to Alberta," Kristi Bland from AHS wrote in a statement.

"However, an AHS facility may only accept if they have available resources to provide care. Our hospitals continue to experience significant capacity challenges due to an ongoing surge in respiratory illnesses, and the number of patients who need to be admitted for care."

Maia ended up having three surgeries on her leg in Mexico. Doctors removed the bacteria so it wouldn't spread, Stock said.

He knew Alberta hospitals were busy, but couldn't believe there was no room for his daughter to get the operations done in Edmonton.

"The easy part should've been getting her into a hospital but there wasn't a single bed in Edmonton that could take her," he said.

"Disbelief, you just can't believe it's possible. She was sick. She had pneumonia as well."

He's eager to have his daughter back home and said that will likely happen in a few days now that Maia has been discharged from hospital.

Stock said it's an important reminder to get travel insurance but shook his head in frustration and said, "apparently nothing can be done" when asked about the state of Alberta's hospitals.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jessica Robb