This is Youri. He’s 7. With him is Marie-Claude Levasseur, a nurse clinician and the coordinator of the Clinical Ethics Unit at Sainte-Justine. What’s that twinkle in their eye as they look at each other? It’s the joy of reuniting for a photo session, more than a year after Youri’s last follow-up appointment with her.
Youri hasn’t always had that twinkle. When he was first seen by the Immunology Department at Sainte-Justine at age 3, he already had a lot of experience with medical professionals. From early on, he and his mother, Véronique, bounced around from ERs to clinics, looking for solutions to one infection after another in his lungs, his urinary tract, his skin, his ears… But the answer was always the same: take these antibiotics, go home and get some rest.
His father and I knew that something was wrong. That there was something behind all of this. Marie-Claude was the first healthcare professional who really listened to us. She said, ‘You know your son better than anyone else, and your input means everything.’ That made a world of difference.
Caring with Heart
Marie-Claude Levasseur’s authentic approach and the trust she shows in parents’ judgment are a gateway to better care. They set the tone for the quality of the clinical experience a family will have throughout their medical journey. A journey that can last a long time.
Youri and his family had to wait several months for a diagnosis. When the answers are slow to come, you have to find ways to provide support and guidance, despite the feelings of powerlessness that can affect even us caregivers.
Youri has a severe immune deficiency disorder. The antibody injections he receives, which started at the hospital with Marie-Claude and now continue at home, following her instructions, are what keep him alive. But thanks to Marie-Claude, and the lollipops, movies and popcorn that come with the shots, they don’t have the negative connotation they once had.
Unbeknownst to Marie-Claude, the tenderness she showed Youri and the way she treated him without making it seem like ‘treatment’ were an inspiration to me, since I had to learn how to give him his shots – and hurt him – too. She taught me that I’m not a caregiver. I’m his mom who gives him care. It’s not the same thing.
Room for the Human Touch
Thanks to our Foundation’s donors, Sainte-Justine can continue to provide high-quality care to children and mothers-to-be from across Quebec. The expertise and specialized skills that drive the hospital’s reputation also help ensure a human approach to patient care, from Marie-Claude’s perspective. The result? Happier kids, like Youri, and happier parents, like Véronique.
The reason I know at least four or five injection techniques is because of the training I’ve been able to get, not just in Quebec but abroad too. So I can personalize my approach and constantly seek out the best way to incorporate it into a given child’s life at a given time. We’re really lucky to be at a state-of-the-art facility like Sainte-Justine.
The Big Picture
Sainte-Justine is a referral centre for every pediatric surgical specialty, organ transplants, child psychiatry, trauma care, bone marrow and cord blood transplants, and more.
Every year, Sainte-Justine treats:
• 200,000 patients through outpatient clinics
• 84,000 patients in the ER
• 18,000 patients admitted to the hospital.
Last year alone, we:
• Welcomed 3,530 newborns to the world, including more than 50% following a high-risk pregnancy and nearly a third who were transferred to the NICU after delivery
• Operated on nearly 10,000 patients
• Performed 18 organ transplants (heart, liver, kidneys and others) and 47 bone marrow transplants.
The Human Face of Patient Care
At Sainte-Justine and the Marie Enfant Rehabilitation Centre, humanizing care and services is a priority for all healthcare professionals – a priority that guides us in everything we do and gives meaning to everything we strive for.
Our various humanization programs include our collaboration with Dr. Clown, as well as our massage, art, music and animal therapy programs, all of which are vital to the continuum of care for patients and families.
