Two prisons
BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN
raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca
Lise Jolicoeur was in the midst of preparing her daughter Patricia's birthday last Friday. It was the first one the family would celebrate following the conclusion of a trial which sentenced Dorval resident Edward Hakim, 21, to 18 months in jail after he accidentally struck down Patricia in November 2006 whilst speeding on a residential street in St. Lazare, leaving her paralyzed and with severe brain damage.
"It's very difficult," Lise told The Chronicle. "But we have to accept her like this." She described a painful existence for her daughter. "Patricia hears us and understands us," Lise said, "but she isn't capable of answering us."
Instead, the 29-year-old former psychology student at Université de Montréal can only communicate with her loved ones by using her hands. "If we ask her to raise her left arm, she'll try it and do it," Lise said.
Though doctors give the family little reason to think Patricia will ever recover from her condition completely, Lise said she does not agree with them. "We're going to be there for her," said Lise. "She is going to do a lot more (than the doctors are expecting)," she added.
Lise echoed her husband's earlier comments to the press, stating the man who accidentally hit her should have gotten a lot more than his current sentence. However, Hakim's lawyer, Martin Pilotte, said the young man is suffering enough for his misdeed. "His life has been completely turned upside down," Pilotte said."He is a nice young man, he's shy and introverted."
Pilotte added the Hakim family is currently keeping quiet as they wait for public scrutiny to calm down. "I find it sad that everyone's after him for what he's done," said Pilotte. "He is in a lot of pain from what happened to him."
Patricia's mother said they would like for Hakim to meet Patricia, to understand the pain he has caused. "We're the ones living with the life sentence," she said.
Meanwhile, Pilotte contended Hakim is so shocked by the accident he caused he has not even been able to drive since then.
Hakim was pulling up to his friend's car on that night to give him a message, which is why he went slightly over the 40 km/hour speed limit, according to Pilotte. Too late to stop once he saw Patricia walking her dog on the street, he wound up hitting her. "He immediately turned back to check on her," Pilotte said.
According to Lise, though, the speeding demonstrates a lack of maturity on the young man's part. "These kinds of drivers are dangerous," she said.
The accident has opened Lise's eyes to the unfair treatment accident victims receive in this province, she said. As the Jolicoeurs wait for room at a CHSLD (residential and long-term public care centre), Patricia has been staying at a private care centre in Pointe Claire.
The result is the Jolicoeurs pay $6,000 a month for their daughter, and only half of that is reimbursed by the Société d'Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ). "That's $72, 000 a year," Lise said.
"We have to fight for everything," Lise said. Patricia's physiotherapy sessions cost $97 an hour, and sessions with an ergotherapist (brain and motor functions specialist) cost $ 95 an hour, she explained, but the SAAQ only reimburses 31$ an hour for each.
SAAQ spokesperson Audrey Chaput confirmed physiotherapy and ergotherapy treatment are only refundable up to $31. "The SAAQ prioritizes boarding at a public institution," Chaput explained. "If an accident victim requires lodging at a private institution, the SAAQ refunds expenses according to a maximum daily amount foreseen in the coverage. This corresponds to an average cost for the same services at a public institution."
In 2006, $1 billion were handed out to accident victims by the SAAQ, which is up from the $951 million in 2005. Chaput said the SAAQ receives around new 35, 000 claims a year, and 60, 000 are refunded per year.
And one more thing please
Claude JolicoeurArticle online since May 7th 2008
Hakim never turned around. It is written in the "Précis des Faits" (reports of the facts) of the Sûreté du Québec, that his girlfriend ridding on the passenger side in the car, gave him hell to go back on the scene since he had feld the sceene, he never stopped and got a hit and run charge. Hakim also told her that they would say that the other driver cut them off. In Marc Koran's statement, the witness who was out with his wife putting up Christmas decoration at the time of the event, he does say that Hakim got out of the car saying " He cut me off...... he cut me off". The grilfriend again denied that in her testimony to the police. So again Me Pilotte is not telling the truth.
Claude Jolicoeur