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.
Before a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s northwest coast can be built, there's another box that needs to be checked: a massive investment in carbon capture and storage in central Alberta.
Jeremy Tunraluk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), is on leave from his position after he was charged with assault.
The head of Canada's Leaders' Debates Commission says the independent body should stop organizing post-debate news conferences and will make changes to how it decides what leaders to invite after this spring's leadership debate was surrounded by controversy.
The Alberta Health Services CEO who took over after a controversial firing in January is now himself off the job.
Standing inside her non-profit managed rental unit in central Windsor, Ont., Sue Pare points to a crack in her kitchen floor she can’t get fixed.
Five people were sent to hospital, including one person with life-threatening injuries, after a fire broke out at a fraternity house near Western University prompting a police investigation.
A rusting and derelict ship that’s been looming large over the waterfront in Springdale for years will soon be removed and disposed of by the federal government.
Greater Sudbury taxpayers will be paying 3.9 per cent more in property taxes in 2026.
When it comes to wintry weather, the Maritimes has certainly dipped a toe into the water with this week's chilly temperatures and snow.
N.B. Power is warning that the U.S. company it hired to build and run a billion-dollar gas plant could walk away in April — a move that would set the project back years, and possibly lead to power shortages in the province.
After Serge Belloncik suffered a stroke in 2022, he developed aphasia, a communication disorder affecting his ability to speak.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation says its annual Winterfest celebration has been cancelled for 2026, with the southwestern Manitoba First Nation's newly elected chief saying there was not enough time or funding to plan the four-day festival.
Amid a housing crisis, Saskatoon is poised to add more than 200 new apartment units near the downtown early next year.