Jennifer Wilson said she has not been able to return to work as a teacher since suffering a stroke during the birth of her first child in March 2011. The Airdrie resident is fighting with TD Insurance, which refuses to pay her claim for disability, stating the type of stroke she suffered is not covered under her policy.
“The definition in my policy says that I have to suffer a stroke that has to be due to hemorrhage – so I meet that requirement. It says that I have to have neurological sequelae for longer than 30 days – so some kind of neurological deficit,” she said. “What they’re saying is that I don’t have neurological deficits, I have hormonal deficits because that’s what the pituitary is responsible for.”
The stroke – which she said destroyed her pituitary gland, adrenal glands and thyroid – left Wilson with deficits in her speech, memory and organizational skills – all things she said she needs to work as a teacher.
“One of the major symptoms I have is memory. All of a sudden my short-term memory was terrible. I had word finding problems – like it’s on the tip of my tongue but it won’t come – attention problems, organizational problems,” she said. “I was a very successful professional and organized person so that was more frightening, I think, than the physical part.
“It’s impacted my daily life. It’s little things like if I’m soaking clothing in the sink, remembering to turn off the water so I don’t flood the house – which I have done twice. It’s remembering to give my kids their medication when they’re ill.”
She is working with occupational therapists from the Southern Alberta Brain Injury Institute and has brain injury specialists coming to her home to help her recover.
Wilson said she provided TD Insurance with all the information requested, including a report on her cognitive abilities and deficits.
“I went and had cognitive testing. It was grueling. Five days with a registered psychologist with all of these standardized tests,” she said. “They tested (me) and said I had all these deficiencies, but (the insurance company) is continuing to argue that it’s only hormonal.”
The entire situation has left Wilson frustrated and angry.
“We’re really distressed and frustrated because every time (TD Insurance) has asked for more documents or every time they’ve come up with another reason why they’re denying our claim, we’re able to go to experts and have them do testing that supports our claim. They’re still refusing to (pay the claim).”
Wilson said she and her husband decided to purchase mortgage insurance – including disability insurance – at the suggestion of her bank when they purchased their home in Airdrie just before the birth of her first son.
“The bank said, ‘You need to buy this (insurance policy) to protect yourself,’ so we did,” she said.
Wilson said when she found out she’d had a stroke and couldn’t go back to work, “the saving grace was that we had bought this insurance on our mortgage that would take care of our mortgage if one of us was disabled and couldn’t work. It turned out that they’re not following through with what we purchased.”
In an email to Airdrie City View, Crystal Jongward, manager of Corporate Communications for TD Insurance, wrote “our policy covers cerebrovascular strokes, which means strokes that occur in the brain. This specific kind of stroke can have immediate and critical health consequences that our coverage is designed to address.
“In this case, because our customer did not suffer a cerebrovascular stroke, she was not eligible for coverage – which you’ll find is aligned with industry standard. As with all of our critical illness claims, we consulted with a number of medical experts on this file, as a regular course of process in reaching this decision.”
The family has hired a lawyer and will be pursuing the case in court – an expensive and stressful experience, Wilson said.
