CALGARY - The family of a man left clinging to life in an alley say they just want to take him home.

But Dina Crafts, the man’s niece, said she’s been told by health officials here it could cost upwards of $40,000 for the flight alone and suggests she leave her uncle’s bedside to go back to Ontario and see if it’s even possible.

“How do we go home and leave him here all alone,” the devastated woman said.

“I can’t even think about that, the guilt of getting on a plane without him.”

John Crafts was found face-down in the 5200 block of 8 Ave. S.E. on March 11.

The paver has never regained consciousness.

As police try to determine how the 54 year-old Calgarian sustained serious head trauma, some family — who all live in Ontario — flew here to be at his side.

Dina said hospital staff have said they plan to take him out of ICU where he has been on life-support and put him to a long-term care ward.

“Now, it’s just time to see if he heals himself, maybe he might heal — it could be a week, a month, a year or never,” Crafts said.

“We are running out of money and are basically being told, go without him or with him in a cardboard box.”

Dina said she has been told she needs approval from Ontario health officials but has been given no direction from officials here on how to do that — and the prospect of leaving is heartbreaking.

“I don’t find them very compassionate,” the mother of three said.

“We talk to him, we touch him, we talk about family back home. We don’t know that it’s getting in but he will lose that connection and there will be nothing left to fight for when he is all by himself.”

Alberta Health Services spokeswoman Amber Goulard said hospitals have transition teams which work with families where “patient transfer to their home province is required,” as well as with officials in the province where a patient is to be transferred.

“For patients who need to be transferred to a hospital in their province of residence, AHS works closely with the health authority or hospital there to facilitate a transfer.”

Unable to comment on any specific case, she said teams would work with a family to see how requests for a transfer to another might work.

nadia.moharib@sunmedia.ca