Desperate to walk again, this 25-year-old Ontario woman is ready to pay $40K for U.S. spinal assessment

Isha Bhargava · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 22, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

A London pistillate injured successful a car clang says she's near with nary prime but to wage to spot a doc successful the United States aft waiting astir 2 years for a diagnosis from an Ontario spine surgeon.

Sydney Gesualdi was rear-ended astatine a reddish airy successful July 2023, aft which she was initially diagnosed with whiplash and insubstantial damage. In the weeks that followed, the 25-year-old lost the quality to walk, started having occupation swallowing and speaking, and had numbness successful her look and limbs. 

"None of these symptoms person gone away, and it's been astir two years," Gesualdi said. "I'm 25 and I can't walk."

She now has to usage a wheelchair and wears a cervix brace astatine each times. Gesualdi's household physician has referred her to eight doctors at spinal clinics crossed the province, but truthful far, she's been denied a consultation. 

CBC News has seen the rejections from Toronto Western Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and Trillium Spine Centre. Wait times and dense caseloads are cited arsenic the crushed for not taking the patient, arsenic good arsenic the information perchance being extracurricular the scope of practice. 

LHSC said successful a statement that attraction teams cautiously reappraisal each spinal country referral and prioritize cases based connected aesculapian urgency. A patient's acuity determines the hold clip for spinal surgery, and is evaluated connected a case-by-case basis. 

A connection from Toronto's University Health Network (UHN) said determination is an accrued request for spinal care and the procedures tin beryllium complex, which impacts hold times. 

"Not each referred patients are suitable candidates for surgery," the UHN connection said. 

When asked astir hold times for spinal surgeries and options for patients, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Health said the state has connected astir 10,000 radical to spine surgeries implicit the past twelvemonth and is working to amended entree to spinal surgeries. 

"Since 2018, we person accrued the healthcare fund by implicit 31 per cent, investing implicit $85 cardinal into the strategy this twelvemonth alone," wrote Emma Popovic. "Together, the actions our authorities is taking person led Ontario to execute immoderate of the shortest hold times successful Canada, with astir 80 per cent of radical receiving their process wrong clinically recommended people times."

Gesualdi says she's frustrated, successful symptom and wants answers, truthful overmuch truthful that she plans to wage $40,000 to question to New York to spot a spinal surgeon for testing and get a attraction plan. She's had to fundraise to screen the cost.

The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) would pay, but lone if the diligent has an "out of country" exertion for aesculapian procedures signed by a Canadian doc stating the process is medically necessary, not disposable successful Ontario and not experimental. 

But getting that missive isn't imaginable without a surgeon assessing her, Gesualdi says.  

"Getting this missive has been adjacent to impossible, and that's wherefore I've sent out so galore referrals to these surgeons to effort to get them to constitute this letter, and each azygous 1 has refused," she said. "There seems to beryllium a truly large disconnect [in the process]."

System 'backed up successful truthful galore ways,' adept says 

Lengthy hold lists for spinal appraisal and attraction are a devastating problem, said Dr. Hamilton Hall, an orthopedic spine surgeon and enforcement manager of the Canadian Spine Society (CSS). 

"In a concern similar a car mishap oregon paralysis, the strategy works precise good due to the fact that it's predicated connected urgent radical getting seen first, but if you person a chronic, much disabling but not life-threatening occupation … it tin instrumentality months oregon adjacent a twelvemonth earlier you get seen by a spine specialist," Hall said.

"Surgery besides isn't needfully the answer. Seeing a surgeon doesn't mean you're going to beryllium cured, but patients request to spot the surgeon to beryllium cleared to accidental it's not a surgical solution, and past they tin crook their attraction to different things."

He pointed out that hold times can't beryllium solved simply by grooming further surgeons, arsenic spinal operations besides necessitate different costly infirmary resources.  

"The system is backed up successful galore ways. It needs to beryllium improved, and it needs to beryllium a co-ordinated effort by the government, health-care providers and hospitals. Getting that benignant of uniformity successful medicine is simply a existent challenge," Hall said.

The Canadian Spine Society is moving with specialists to make guidelines connected the types of patients who request to beryllium seen urgently and those who tin wait. 

Meanwhile, Gesualdi says her information has changed her life. Before the accident, she owned a palmy eyelash hold business and present says she barely leaves her house, but for aesculapian appointments. 

"I can't put into words however devastating it's been for maine and everyone successful my family, the grief that comes on with missing retired connected mean beingness experiences and adjacent milestones."