The family of a comatose Maple Ridge man is in a legal battle to keep him on life support, and are raising money to bring him to a hospital in the U.S.
His injuries are the subject of an investigation by the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO), which announced a case involving the Ridge Meadows RCMP after an incident on Aug. 30. The 39-year-old suffered cardiac arrest, brain trauma, and kidney failure.
"Stevie is still on life support at Royal Columbian, and our family is facing overwhelming medical and legal costs as we fight to give him every possible chance," his sister told The News. "His six children, including two with autism, are holding onto hope and need their dad."
Police say at around 4:30 a.m., officers responded to a call about a man screaming, and in distress in the 20900-block of Lougheed Highway. There were reports he was walking into traffic. They arrived to find a man laying in the traffic lanes. Officers called for assistance from BC Emergency Health Services, because the man did not respond to verbal communication, and they say he was hitting his head on the ground.
Police attempted to control the man until an ambulance arrived, but he went into medical distress. Officers administered aid, and the man was taken by ambulance to hospital.
The patient is a father of six, an iron worker, who lived on Laity Street. He is alive because his family got a court injunction to keep him on life support.
His sister told The News that they come from a large family – he has four brothers and three sisters on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border – and Stevie has dual citizenship. Because of differing standards of brain function that constitute brain death in Canada and the U.S., the family would like to have their comatose brother transferred to a hospital south of the border.
Even if the chance is small that his injuries heal, and he wakes up, they want to give him that.
"They're trying to rule him brain dead, and we're fighting that,'' she said. "In the States he has more of a fighting chance."
"There's a lot of people who want him back."
His sister said the family is debating whether to take him to California where she lives and his mother lives, or to New Jersey, where they believe he could get the best possible care for his condition.
They have learned the cost could be as high as $70,000 to transfer Stevie, and more for legal fees to extend the court injunction that keeps him on life support. They are raising money to make it happen through a gofundme.com account.
The IIO has asked witnesses who have not already provided a statement, or who have video footage of the incident, to contact the IIO at their witness line toll-free at 1-855-446-8477 or via the contact form on the iiobc.ca website.
