The federal government is expected to fly a woman with Alzheimer's disease back to Nova Scotia soon so she can be reunited with her husband, a Halifax MP said Monday.

Alexa McDonough said federal cabinet minister Peter MacKay told her the government will provide a special flight for Heli Munroe, who was taken to England without her husband's consent two years ago.

Sandy Munroe hopes his wife, who was taken to England in November 2005, will be home soon.
(CBC)

The hospital in northern England that is caring for the 65-year-old woman has not confirmed to CBC it will release her.

Even so, Sandy Munroe said a medical panel reviewed his wife's case and concluded he has the right to make decisions for her, clearing a major hurdle in his fight to bring her home.

"I'm very impressed," he told CBC News Monday morning.

"The public panel decided that I was not an abusive person but a loving, normal husband who deserves to be next of kin and needs to have his wife nearby and that would be the best for Heli as well."

Heli's condition is getting worse, Munroe said, and her doctor will not allow her to fly on a regular commercial airline.

"Heli is just barely well enough to travel at all. It has to be an air ambulance because that's what her doctors have said, and I'm sure they are right. She just has to be given very special care," he said.

Munroe said the hospital in England promised to send its chief psychiatric nurse and two nursing assistants on the trip.

Heli, once a specialist in dementia care, designated her husband power of attorney in 2001, two years before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. In April 2005, a team of doctors declared her mentally incompetent.

Heli's brother, Marek Pospieszalski, visited the Munroes at their home in Tennycape in November 2005. He put his sister on a plane to England, later telling reporters she was not happy and wanted to see her siblings back home.

Sandy Munroe contacted the RCMP about getting his wife back, but he said they decided not to lay charges after consulting with the province's public prosecution service.

In June, Munroe travelled to England to see his wife for the first time since she was taken away.