A mother from Saguenay whose 31-year-old son is severely disabled is at the end of her resources and launched a real cry from the heart on Wednesday because of the condition of her child who has deteriorated.
Off work for three years to take care of him full time, she needs help, but no longer knows who to turn to.
“Can we do something before something serious happens? Because I am exhausted, exhausted, exhausted, ”said Marc-André’s mother, Isabelle Côté.
Her son has autism spectrum, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome in addition to suffering from sprinkling and epileptic seizures.
“For a mother to see that, it marks for life. My guy really doesn’t have the same life he had before. He had a small job, he had activities, ”she lamented.
Marc-André had even been accepted into a supervised apartment, but in 2019 his condition deteriorated and the symptoms multiplied, in addition to constantly varying.
“When my guy had his seizure on August 5, I had a panic attack too because it’s really not a seizure that’s pretty to see, because it’s generalized epilepsy,” said told his mother. Her son will go see a neurosurgeon in Quebec specializing in epileptic seizures next fall.
Isabelle Côté is convinced that her son also suffers from neurological problems. He also passed seven electroencephalograms at the Chicoutimi hospital, an examination which makes it possible to measure and record the electrical activity of the brain.
“They can’t find anything conclusive… We’re not able to get out at all, even though it’s gotten worse, he’s not able to noise. Sometimes it can take 1h30 to eat. He has seizures, I sleep with him, often in the evening he is too tired so I wash him,” she said.
Ms. Côté has made numerous calls to hospitals, organizations, respite homes and CLSCs. No one can offer his son the care adapted to his particular condition.
“I have been told that the little help that can be offered to him, he cannot access it because of all his symptoms. The CRD (Rehabilitation Center for Intellectual Disabilities) even closed the file. It has never happened to them to have a case with such a situation so he cannot have access to anything, ”she lamented.
Out of breath, Isabelle Côté needs help for her son, but also to help him rest.
She also launched a cry from the heart to Prime Minister François Legault.
“It takes programs for these children. They give us money, but it’s not easy to find someone. Someone who can be here or maybe take him home. It takes government programs, they have nothing. When the organizations tell you that they have nothing to offer you and that we have been in this for three years, his condition worsens and he finds it extremely difficult, ”she said. mentioned.
Isabelle Côté must take a cocktail of drugs to keep her head above water. His doctor also wrote a letter, of which TVA Nouvelles obtained a copy.
“Madam suffers from a lot of anxiety and takes medication. She is exhausted, discouraged and worried regarding the future for her health and that of her son. There is no place to take care of her son temporarily. What are we waiting for to act?” can you read there.
“I love him and I wouldn’t change him for all the gold in the world, but what we are living there is too much, it takes help and I think that today in 2022, there is no not a human being should go through this. To be at my wit’s end like this I never thought I would experience this, but I’ve come to this. It takes help because at some point we will no longer be able, ”she said.
The office of Minister Andrée Laforest is also on the file and is awaiting a return from the Integrated University Center for Health and Social Services (CIUSSS) to find a solution, but time is running out.