Thompson desperately needs foot care services after nursing positions left vacant, seniors group says
CBC
WARNING: This story contains a graphic image of an infection.
Northern Manitobans are calling on the province to restore preventive foot care nursing at a clinic in Thompson, saying the loss of those services is causing suffering and hardship.
Thousands have signed a petition saying the number of seniors and people with diabetes is growing in the northern city, with many unable to afford the vital ongoing foot care they need.
Retiree Cliff Duchesne, who lives with diabetes, spent much of the past year in and out of hospital after an infection started in his foot.
He was put on an air ambulance in the fall of 2021 to Winnipeg after his toe turned black overnight, which eventually led to an amputation.
"I had two toes taken off — the big one and the one next to it," said Duchesne.
Duchesne believes that could have been prevented had the province not cut the foot care services he depended on.
"I tried to get foot care" prior to his amputation, he said. "I asked lots of times, but they said, 'Well, maybe … [the foot care services are] coming back.' That's all I'd get told. But no, never, nothing."
Duchesne said he'd asked staff at the Thompson Clinic for help with his foot infection months before the operation, but wasn't referred for more advanced treatment until it was too late.
"I started going back and they told me to just watch it," he said. "They gave me some cream, but it just kept getting worse."
A few months after his first amputation, he was flown south again for more.
"My other toe turned black," Duchesne said. "So they took that. And then my finger."
Because of diabetes, Duchesne has to be careful with his feet, but he's unable to use nail clippers due to issues with his hands and wrists.
"I nicked my big toe when I filed my nails," said the senior, who once ran Cliff's Taxi company in Thompson.
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