A woman who survived a blastomycosis outbreak in a northern Ontario First Nation speaks out

Jennifer Taylor knew something was seriously wrong when she could no longer breathe lying down.

The 50-year-old from Constance Lake First NAtion started feeling sick in November of 2021, and on the 12th went to hospital in Hearst.

Having asthma, she knew the signs of pneumonia and thought that's what she had, and a doctor gave her antibiotics telling her she would soon feel better.

But she didn't.

Taylor went back to hospital, but was again sent home with antibiotics.

"I was suffering so bad," she remembered.

"So one night, I decided to go back to the hospital again, but this time I said 'I'm going to call an ambulance and maybe the doctor will take me more seriously if I went by ambulance.' They gave me oxygen right away and, oh my Lord, it felt so good to be able to get some oxygen in my lungs."

But Taylor was sent home again, crying in frustration and gasping to breathe.

Then, to her shock, she heard that three people in her community of 800— Luke Moore, Lorraine Shaganash and Lizzie Sutherland— had died.

She knew all of them.

Soon after, her sister called and told her to go back to the hospital to be re-assessed.

By that time, doctors were aware that people were falling ill of a fungal lung disease called blastomycosis, which Taylor had never heard of before.

It's a naturally occurring illness and spread when people breathe in spores released from decaying plant matter combined with sewage and wet soil.

By this time, Taylor said she was doesn't remember much because she was fading in and out, but the next day she was airlifted to hospital in North Bay and admitted to the intensive care unit.