Homeless Vincentians in Canada on the run

They walk the streets of Toronto. They sleep in any shelter that welcomes them. They find sustenance at facilities that cater to the homeless.{{more}} Lately, they have been spending the night in a washroom, unbeknownst to its security guard. They are a married couple, both landed immigrants to Canada.

Nicolas George and his wife Debra Young George are eager to tell their story. For them, they are in a battle with and on the run from several medical practitioners and hospitals, not the Canadian Healthcare system they are quick to point out.

But how did these two Vincentians end up scrimmaging for a living? Nicolas, after all, is a craftsman and videographer, while his wife Debra, is co-owner of their Canadian registered business Natural Mystic Promotion, now dormant, they say, because of their plight. They relate an intriguing tale of a kidney transplant that Debra had in 2004, but one which they claim was never done. They were fooled, they say, by the surgeons and hospital, all in the pursuit of financial gain. Added to what they describe as their tragic circumstance is their allegation that around that same time, Debra’s baby was aborted without their consent.

Debra came to Canada, followed by Nicolas some months later, back in 2000.

Suffering with low kidney function, Nicolas says that the move was necessary to obtain medical care for his wife. Settling in Montreal, Debra was first treated, they relate, by the Montreal Jewish Hospital.

After two years of peritoneal dialysis to treat chronic renal failure, in 2004, Debra Young got a kidney transplant, according to court documents filed by McGill University Health Centre and Maciej Kalina, M.D.

They explain that Debra, the respondent in the motion, had apparently discontinued anti-rejection medications, believing that the medication would harm a foetus that she and her husband were attempting to conceive. It says that when the respondent, Debra George, was seen on July 3, 2008, there was acute renal failure. There was also heavy loss of blood. An ultrasound revealed foetal wastage. Dr. Dana Baran, in the motion to introduce proceedings for authorization of treatment, says that both respondents, Nicholas and Debra, left the hospital when cautioned that Debra required admission to the hospital and dialysis.

Debra was later found by Police, the document states, and dialysis was done against her will. But, Nicolas George, backed by his wife, does not accept that a kidney transplant was done in 2004. Neither does he think that Debra has a kidney illness, although dialysis is now done three times a week.

They are of the view that the doctors initiated a non-surgical process called HALT to cause the kidneys to act as if an illness existed. Nicolas points out that his wife has no scar to indicate that she had a transplant. But on at least three occasions, the couple was taken to court by a number hospitals, including the McGill University Health Centre and Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital, to order treatment. The couple claims that it is an elaborate conspiracy to cover the hospitals malfeasance – not having actually done a transplant, though saying one was done.

The affidavits of medical doctors and psychiatrists affirm that a transplant was done and that failure to continue with the prescribed medication caused it to fail. While the two Vincentians, both in their early thirties, are insistent that their story be told and furnished mounds of original court documents to shed light in their plight, the Court has sided with the hospitals and doctors, and on each occasion that they made representation, and ordered Debra to be forcibly treated.

While the Georges only uncertainty is where to sleep and what they would eat, the psychiatrists seem certain that Debra is suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder which causes her to have delusions, which can result in real and immediate danger to her. Nicolas is also described as being psychotic.

In an emergency motion for authorisation of medical treatment in August 2010, it says that Debra and her husband have a pronounced mistrust of all medical professionals because of their delusion of a conspiracy that the medical personnel are conspiring to ensure that they never have children.

The same emergency motion outlines that Debra’s illness impairs her from understanding that her life is at risk. “Without the proposed treatment, the short and mid-term prognosis includes stroke, heart failure, vision loss and eventually death.”

Yet, Debra who fled Montreal last November, after another order was granted for her to be treated medically and psychiatrically, is insistent that she is not ill.

The couple want their story to be told so that they could begin to rebuild their lives. They want to come off of the streets of Toronto and restart their business. Though there are numerous agencies that offer assistance to the homeless, including the government, Nicolas sees accepting welfare, as fraud, since he has a registered business and a charitable organisation.

For the time being, they remain on the street. The couple say that they are expecting a baby. A pregnancy test reads positive.

It may be a case of “folie a deux”, where a mental illness affects a couple or two persons, as Debra’s psychiatric tests have alluded to. The fact still remains that Debra and Nicolas, based on interviews with this reporter, need help.

A call to the SVG consulate confirms that the mission knows of their case. Steve Phillips, the head diplomat there, has indicated that, given the authorisation to communicate with Debra’s doctors, he would intervene and assist where possible.

Meanwhile, the couple’s situation is apparently worsening. Nicolas George and his wife want to move into an apartment and get their furniture and business machinery out of storage so that they can start to fend for themselves.

“Our situation is bad, real bad. We need to get off the street.”