Nearly a year after her stroke, this St. Anthony woman is still not being offered rehab

Patsy Smith’s husband, Tony Smith, is not a physical therapist, but his days are spent helping his wife regain some movement in the limbs on the left side of her body.

The couple lives in St. Anthony, NL, a small community on the northwestern tip of Newfoundland. Several months ago, a physiotherapist visiting the region gave Tony Smith tips to help improve his wife’s mobility, which they have practiced every day since.

“He’s working on range of motion, core muscle strength and doing what he can,” said the couple’s daughter, Tara Tucker.

It’s the only rehabilitation Smith is receiving after the family’s requests for professional therapy from Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services were repeatedly denied.

“Dad has really been the one to step in and fill the void,” Tucker said. “He’s 73.”

Stroke survivor

Smith suffered a brain hemorrhage on December 30, 2023 and was unable to move her left side.

At age 70, her initial prognosis was death.

The community hospital, Charles S. Curtis Memorial, does not have a stroke unit. Instead, the facility relies on medical resources to transfer patients to St. John’s.

Tucker said a primary care physician requested medical attention for Smith.

After the requests were denied, her mother was placed in palliative care.

Days passed and Smith did not die. She corrected.

“The bleeding stopped and because of that, very gradually and slowly, she didn’t deteriorate as they suspected, but she gradually started to get better,” Tucker said.

Not equipped

St. Anthony hospital staff told Tucker they were not equipped to handle her mother’s condition.

“They indicated they were in over their heads,” Tucker said.

She said the team encouraged her to advocate for her mother, hoping she could get under the care of a neurologist or specialist in St. John’s.

More than 10 months later, Tucker said, that still hasn’t happened.

Smith’s recovery was slow, but today the stroke mainly affects her mobility due to reduced function of her left side.

“She’s cognitively not exactly where she was before, but very close. She’s made so much progress from where she was to where she is now,” Tucker said. “She has never lost her ability to speak. She can eat on her own.”

These improvements occurred without formal rehabilitation, she added.

Recommendation from a specialist

After six months in the hospital, Tucker said, her mother saw a specialist who attended St. Anthony.

In a letter, the doctor recommended that Tucker receive aggressive rehabilitation at the Miller Center in St. John’s or in Corner Brook.

The Miller Center denied her application twice before the specialist’s recommendation.

Tucker said she was hopeful that, based on her mother’s improvement and the doctor’s recommendation, she would finally receive care.

The doctor said Smith was awake and alert during the examination.

“She is in a wheelchair. Speech is normal. Visual fields are full, eye movements are intact and pupils are equal and symmetrical, both in terms of light and accommodation,” the specialist wrote.

They also said Smith’s cranial nerve exam and the rest of her neurological exam were normal.

Her motor examination revealed weakness on her left side, but the cerebral hemorrhage did not recur after her first stroke.

“She is currently stable,” the specialist wrote. “I agree that she should have received aggressive rehabilitative physical therapy.”

Despite the recommendation, Smith’s application was again denied.

‘We have to help mommy’

Tucker said her mother will be released from the hospital soon. Smith’s primary caregiver is her husband, as Tucker lives in Paradise, on the other side of the island.

As her parents prepare for life at home, Tucker said she wants her mother to have a fair chance at independence.

“She is not set up or equipped to go home and cope with life after a stroke,” Tucker said. “We need to help mom become more independent so they can both deal with this at home.”

Tucker is frustrated and says she has contacted the provincial government about her mother’s situation to no avail.

“Politicians are very quick to come back and say, ‘well, we can’t intervene in medical decisions.’ Fair, but who is?” she said.

NLHS doubles down

PC leader Tony Wakeham raised Smith’s situation in the House of Representatives last Friday.

“I ask the Prime Minister: why is this mother being denied an opportunity?” Wakeham asked.

The premier responded that he cannot comment on the details, but said Newfoundland and Labrador has some of the best-trained medical professionals in the world.

Wakeham kept pushing.

“Speaker, why is rehabilitation being denied in rural Newfoundland and Labrador?”

Furey responded using his experience as a doctor in the province.

“I noticed the member across the street initially said palliative care and then moved to rehab. That’s a difficult dissonance to reconcile,” he said.

Minutes into question time, Wakeham told reporters that NL Health Services was doubling down on their decision to keep Smith out of rehab.

“We had received an email from the health authority at 2.21pm stating that they have reviewed the situation but are not recommending that the lady receive any form of rehabilitation,” Wakeham said.

Tucker feels stuck and says residents of rural Newfoundland are being left behind in the health care system.

‘Give her a month. Give her six weeks to shut us up. They won’t even do that. They don’t even want to file a lawsuit against it,” she said. ‘Where do we go from here?

“They are digging in their heels and don’t want to give this woman a chance.”

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