Welcome to Puvirnituq

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Welcome to Puvirnituq
Well maybe, or maybe not. As I sit here, nursing my hot, itchy sore ear and cheek, covered in bug bites, am not sure about the welcome. Have been here a little over a week, and have been here been on call the whole time. Likely we will have a birth tonight or tomorrow, and since I am first on call, it will mean more busy times. At least here we do not have to be at work from 9 to 5 if we have been up all night.
Arriving here was lovely. My camera battery died just prior to getting near to PUV, as Puvirnituq is affectionately called, or POV short for something similar that used to be the town’s name. The amazing thing is all the water, as it seems to be all over the north. In PUV though, you add colour. The water has amazing colours, and as there are drop off s a few metres off all the Islands there are an amazing array of colours in the water.

I did a medevac to Umiujaq, one village below Inukjuak and about an hour, by plane, south of here, and was surprised to see trees. Well, honestly they are not trees as you and I know them, but they were four to six feet tall, and grew in little clusters here and there. Our driver said they had one really big one...about seven to eight feet tall. They were really proud of that tree. It was also very verdant and green in the village. Unfortunately it was also heaving rain, and we were in a rush, so could not take photos. A woman had given birth there, which is not supposed to happen, and I had to check out everything and make sure the 36 week baby was okay.


She was fine and dandy, and had already breastfed by the time we got there.
As we arrived though, we got a call saying we would be heading to Salluit, for another patient, not maternity. So, it was, can you do this as fast as possible please, but at the same time teach the nurses because they will be doing follow up on this Mum and baby, and they have not done it previously. Not surprising as Umiujaq is only 400 people. Their pregnant ladies usually leave at 36 weeks and go to PUV, or somewhere else, to deliver. Some go to Inukjuak as it is closer, and many have relatives living there. (I thought about suggesting we check out their Northern store to see if there was any bread, but since we were in a rush, decided it was not a good idea. Also the Northern was the size of a normal house, so thought their stock might not be so large.)
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We drove back to the airport and were then told that we were taking two more patients from there, as the sched (scheduled flight) had not been able to land there due to weather. Prior to leaving PUV we had also been told we might not be able to land due to weather, but if we did not make it we would go to Kuujjuarapik and get more fuel, then try again on the way back. Luckily we did not do that.
Just before we took off, with the two extra patients with us, the pilot told the nurse that we had to stop off at Inukjuak, for an emergency. Oh well, what is one more person. The weather there was great. Now remember that these villages are about 35 minutes flight time from one another, and PUV is another 35 minutes north of Inukjuak. The weather systems are all different. So, we got into the clouds, and it was amazing to me that instruments can tell you where you are, because the whole flight seemed the same...in the middle of fog. But we successfully took off and landed several times that day. Inukjuak was quite nice, once we were under the clouds, and we landed without incident, picked up a patient on a stretcher and their escort and were off to PUV. The nurse was also told that there was no way they could land at Salluit, due to weather.


Well, as I started to say, it is amazing the differences a few miles make to the plant life in this region. Inukjuak is a beautiful green colour. There are masses of berries and grasses, and everything is very green. They also have the beautiful colours of the waters there, and the village itself is between the Inukjuak river and the Hudson’s Bay. It is a town of approximately 1600, with the highest number of people per capita on welfare, in the whole Quebec, according to the Midwives there. And judging from the number of food coupons we gave out there compared to PUV, it is a statement I believe. (There is a food coupon program for pregnant women and nursing mothers up here. I am not sure if it is Quebec wide, but suspect now.)


This time landing in PUV, my camera was at the ready. I snapped pictures and got some beautiful shots of the islands and the water. Lots of reds in the rocks and water colour, but the land is not green as it is further south. Everything here is much browner, despite the rain that has been prevalent since I arrived. I was also told by one of the midwives that the bugs were not bad here because the caribou had been through already. She said that when the caribou herd goes through the area, the bugs follow it. Not my personal opinion, as I am wearing my bug shirt, even if everyone thinks it is “cute”.
My previous medevac had been to Salluit. It was in the middle of the night, so did not take my camera, which was quite silly. It is light here by five am, so there were lots of photos that could have been taken and Salluit is truly beautiful. It is on a fjord in between two hills, well, hills if you live in BC, but the people here have said mountains. It is all in your perspective. The sun was rising as we left and it really was beautiful. Only problem with Salluit is the weather, which is very iffy most of the time. Even in summer you can get stuck there for three or four days because of fog, clouds, or the plane just not being able to land.

PUV has two stores, the Northern and the Co-op. Anyone who has been reading my blogs or facebook notes will know that this is the norm here. The Northern is a chain which used to, and may still, belong to the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Co-op’s are stores belonging to the Inuit of each village. In some places they say the Northern is for the southerners and the Co-Op is for the Inuit. I have not found this to be particularly true. Everyone seems to shop in both, depending on what they want. And if you want snack food or pop they both have an amazing variety!



The hospital here is divided into three areas. It has Nursing, the Department, and the Maternity. Nursing is where you go for an appointment, or if you need to see a doctor, although you see a nurse really, and if you are seriously ill, or have some problem that you will need to go south for, you see a doctor. This seems to be similar to Rankin. The doctors are considered the specialists of the south and the nurses are considered the GP’s of the south. There is a lab, a pharmacy, X-rays and usually ultrasound department, and everyone from the whole Hudson’s Bay coast of Quebec comes to this hospital for these services. The Department is the in patient services. I believe they have 20 beds but many are chronic care, and they also have an emergency department. Maternity has three birthing rooms, each with a double bed and chest of drawers. A tray is brought in for a birth that has most of the necessary equipment on it. There is also a clinic room, bathroom, office, storage room and emergency room. There is no baby stuff set up in the birth rooms. If there is a problem you take the baby to the emergency room. They have no EFM’s.
Other villages have health centres that consist of two or more nurses, and doctors either full time or sometimes depending on the size of the community. They seem to handle emergencies, and general health very well. If there is an emergency a plane is sent from PUV to the community, to pick up the patient. They are then screened here, and if necessary, sent by jet to Montreal. There seem to be jets to Montreal every day, but I have been told this seems to be the case right now, but is not in reality true.
I was told by Midwives in Inukjuak that years ago Inukjuak was to have the Hudson’s Bay hospital, but some old men in town thought it was a bad idea. They said they were quite mad at those men because there were now no jobs in that town, and PUV had jobs. PUV is the same size as Inukjuak, but it seems to have more problems as well. Both towns are friendly, but there are more jobs and money here, and it seems, more alcohol, drugs and violence. It may be my perception, and certainly it is nothing like a large town in the south, but the demeanor here is different than in the other villages. Having said that, I am liking it here just as much as in Inukjuak. It has its own flavour and character, as do all the northern villages.



To finish the medevac story, the woman we picked up in Umiujaq was with us til about six thirty that evening, when a Challenger jet came to take her and another patient to Montreal. I got home about seven and was called again at one thirty in the morning to go back to Inukjuak for another patient. The flying isn’t exhausting, but everything around it is. Getting ready, getting equipment, knowing the general information about the patient you are going to get, but not really knowing what you will be doing, and generally flying by the seat of your pants (pun). It does make the work a little more exciting. I am sure that if we have any normal births, (no births so far) it will be even more fun to be here.
So, I am enjoying the wind and rain and sun, the plants and ocean, knowing that by a month from now the temperature will have dropped and we will be experiencing very different weather. The berries will be picked and mushrooms harvested, and everyone will be getting ready for winter. Until then I will just observe all the wonderful changes of the north.