Home-care nurses told her not to worry about her bedsore. She was hospitalized the next day

Two years ago, on a late November morning, Sylvie Hudon woke up shaking like a leaf.

The 66-year-old, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was trembling from what she says were the early signs of sepsis.

She hadn't seen it coming.

Just the day before, nurses visiting her Quebec City home had told her she had "no need to worry" about a bedsore located at the very bottom of her back — even after she flagged a bad smell.

She would later find out her wound contained four different types of bacteria, while one had entered her bloodstream. The hole on her back ended up being the size of an orange — stretching all the way down to the bone.

"It was something major," said Hudon, who called an ambulance for herself. "[They] brought me up to the operating block right away."

Hudon says it never should have come to that point.

Since 2020, she'd received home visits from CLSC nurses three times a week to monitor, change the bandages and clean the pressure sore — a frequent occurrence for people with limited mobility or a spinal cord injury.

"Over those two years, maybe 20 nurses came to my house … when you have a rotation like that, they can't compare from one time to the next if it's redder or pinker or bigger or smaller," said Hudon.

"It's not one single person who missed it."

Months of hospitalizations and a surgery later, she's sharing her story in the hopes that her situation doesn't repeat itself.

While she's not pointing the finger at home-care nurses, saying they were doing what they could, she says people with pressure wounds deserve better care.

"I can't be satisfied with basic care. We need more," said Hudon. "We need someone who's going to be able to do a real assessment."

Alongside advocates and patients in Quebec City, she's calling for the development of additional specialized resources for people with spinal cord injuries dealing with bedsores in the Quebec City region.