Lack of support for long COVID patients leaves N.B. woman feeling 'abandoned'
CBC
Sonia Aubé, a social worker with the Department of Social Development in Bathurst, feels like she has gone from hero to zero in the span of a year.
In early 2021 she volunteered to be part of New Brunswick's rapid outbreak management team in her region. Comprised of different health-care workers, the team, also known as a PROMT, is deployed to long-term care homes and other vulnerable settings when a COVID-19 outbreak happens.
Aubé, 51, says helping others is a big part of her job and her personality and she stepped up right away.
"This is my calling — and I really thought I could help … but then I got COVID."
Aubé hadn't yet received her first shot, when she responded to the outbreak at an Edmundston special care home on Jan. 22, 2021.
She tested positive for the virus 10 days later and was quickly isolated at a chalet near her home in Petit-Rocher. Her symptoms included a loss of taste and smell, fever, fatigue and body aches but never anything serious enough to require hospitalization.
"I was followed by Public Health for the whole two weeks," Aubé said. "A lot of people came to bring me gifts and food — you know, on the porch — and came to see me through the windows."
She felt supported by her employer and fully expected that her health would return, and her life would go back to normal.
"But let me tell you, when I got out of the chalet and came back home, I felt like the world just gave out on me."
At the time, Aubé had never heard of long COVID. She had no idea why she was developing new symptoms that included brain fog, headaches and the feeling that she was spinning. She kept telling herself that if she could go back to work and get back into her routine, she would be fine.
On her first day back, she was proud of herself and felt her co-workers were proud of her too.
"They made this line of applause … because they thought I was a hero. You know, going there and then getting COVID and then coming back to work."
That feeling didn't last. Aubé found herself lost in her tasks at work, unable to do the job she had done for 25 years.
By the third day, her co-workers were so worried that they called Aubé's daughter to come and get her.
Members of CUPE Local 456, which represents city workers in Melville, Sask., have voted in favour of job action due to wage disputes and high employee turnover.
Some schools in Queens and Prince counties are starting one hour later Wednesday due to road conditions following yesterday's storm.
Edmonton's city auditor has made eight recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the city's paratransit service, saying clients who rely on the service will benefit from the changes.
Electric bus manufacturers hit hard by pandemic-era supply chain chaos could soon find themselves pummelled by a trade war.
A workshop will be held Wednesday evening to help give Windsor residents the necessary tools on how to interact with people experiencing homelessness.
Buy Canadian — that's the message being pushed across the country. But on the other end of the movement, some small business owners in Calgary who feel the pressure to pivot to Canadian products say that isn't as easy as it sounds.
Inside a community centre in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, poster board collages display photos of a young woman with a big smile on her face. She's shown with her arms wrapped around family members, being silly in selfies with friends, standing proud in a high school graduation gown.
As an outreach worker helping people with life-limiting illnesses in Thunder Bay, Ont., Julie Diner says she doesn't spend much time in the office.
A swift response by flight attendants, crews and emergency workers was among the key reasons why no one died in Monday's plane crash at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, an expert and officials say.
Health care, homelessness and the threat of U.S. tariffs were among the top issues addressed by Cambridge candidates as part of a panel discussion on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition on Tuesday.
U.S. president Donald Trump's tariff threats and digs at Canadian sovereignty are forcing Canadian politicians of all stripes to adapt, and in Quebec, the opposition Parti Québécois is facing a particularly tough challenge.
Rough weather on Tuesday forced salvage specialists to abandon their inspection of a cargo ship that ran aground in a rocky cove along Newfoundland's west coast over the weekend.
Premier Tim Houston's government is using its supermajority in the legislature to give itself the power to fire the auditor general without cause and make reports from the office private.