{"id":3204,"date":"2015-06-24T15:36:52","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T19:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.122.34\/en\/?p=3204"},"modified":"2021-02-17T12:36:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T17:36:54","slug":"far-from-home-patients-from-nunavut-travel-thousands-of-kilometres-for-care-at-the-ottawa-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/far-from-home-patients-from-nunavut-travel-thousands-of-kilometres-for-care-at-the-ottawa-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Far from home: patients from Nunavut travel thousands of kilometres for care at The Ottawa Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elise Kipsigak, left, and her mother, Margaret, travelled from a small Nunavut community for care at The Ottawa Hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elise Kipsigak pointed to two paintings in the Larga Baffin residence in west-end Ottawa. They show traditional northern scenes: a sunset over the tundra and running sled dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are my aunt\u2019s photos,\u201d she said. \u201cShe paints them from photos. She\u2019s from back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Kipsigak is in Ottawa escorting her mother, Margaret, for lung cancer treatment at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre since she doesn\u2019t speak English and, at age 78, has difficulty walking.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack home\u201d comes up often in conversation, referring to Igloolik, their small Nunavut community on an island near Baffin Island.<\/p>\n

The hospital provides specialized care to the Qikiqtani region in eastern Nunavut. To get here, the two women flew at least five hours on two flights, changing provinces, climates, cultures and health systems \u2013 the equivalent of traveling from Ottawa to Central America for medical care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"june-nunavut-infographic-map\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be overwhelming for patients,\u201d said Lorne MacLeod, Larga Baffin\u2019s social worker. \u201cThe role of community in the north is very powerful and it\u2019s difficult to be away, missing their families while dealing with so many new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nunavut government pays for its citizens to stay at Larga Baffin, where key staff members speak Inuktitut, serve traditional foods and help with things like ordering prescriptions. Patients can bring an escort to help them navigate the language, culture and health system; lodging, meals and transport to and from appointments are covered.<\/p>\n

Patients have access to a professional interpreter for medical appointments, but having family there is essential, said Ms. Kipsigak. \u201cIf I\u2019m here, I can help tell them what\u2019s wrong, and help her know what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the end, nothing is quite like Igloolik. \u201cShe misses home,\u201d Ms. Kipsigak translated for her mother. \u201cShe misses our home town and she misses her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elise Kipsigak, left, and her mother, Margaret, travelled from a small Nunavut community for care at The Ottawa Hospital. Elise Kipsigak pointed to two paintings in the Larga Baffin residence in west-end Ottawa. They show traditional northern scenes: a sunset over the tundra and running sled dogs. \u201cThese are my aunt\u2019s photos,\u201d she said. \u201cShe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}