Future unclear for Nunavut man who broke his spine while trying to get around in a wheelchair

A man in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, who broke his spine while trying to access a building in his wheelchair is still recovering from the catastrophic injuries he sustained, and it's not clear what supports he'll find in his community now that he faces even bigger mobility challenges. 

In November, Richard Subgut was heading up a ramp to get his income assistance cheque when his jacket got caught on the remote for his wheelchair. He fell down a set of stairs, fracturing his skull and paralyzing him.

He's been in a hospital bed ever since.

"I'm still the same. I can move a little bit, but not a whole lot," he said during an interview in April from his bed at the Kivalliq Health Centre. "I'm getting better, day by day — slowly."

While Subgut already knew how hard it was to get around his community in a wheelchair before his accident, neither he nor his sister, Verna Kowtak, know what sort of future he'll face if he can't use one — including what access he'll have or need for medical services, and just how much he'll be able to get around.

Subgut is currently in Winnipeg for physical rehabilitation, but Kowtak wants him to move into her home when he gets back. That means they will need to get a ramp installed outside and convert her living room into a bedroom with a specialized bed for him.

It'll be crowded — she lives with five of her children already, and counting her grandchildren, there are about a dozen people living in her four-bedroom home — but she talked about it with her husband and he agreed.

"We grew up together, me and my brother. We had two other brothers, but they have passed on, so it's just me and him now," she said. "I'm happy if he's going to come and live with me."

"I hope and pray that he'll be able to move again."

A lack of data

In 2015, the Nunavut government released a report that stated the majority of Nunavummiut with serious disabilities rely on their family to care for them — and those who don't end up on the waiting list for residential long-term care, increasingly being sent to the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit or out of territory.

A report commissioned by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in 2020 examined the territory's infrastructure gap.

The conclusions are grim for Inuit with physical disabilities: those who live in communities with a lack of services sometimes have to choose to leave their homes and families and head to regional centres. Some are forced to become residents of one of the provinces, much like the elders forced outside of the territory for care, whose plight has prompted demonstrations and petitions. 

Those who remain, as Subgut's story shows, face outsized challenges in mobility and accessing supports that some in southern Canada take for granted, though little is known about the scale of the problem. 

The Nunavut government could not provide CBC with information about how many Nunavummiut have to leave the territory for physical rehabilitation after a disabling injury, how many Nunavummiut receive disability supports, how much the government spends on those supports, or whether there are plans in place to increase accessibility.

Data from other sources is sparse and unreliable. The last Canadian Survey on Disability, conducted by Statistics Canada in 2018, showed 4,300 Nunavummiut over the age of 15 identify as having a disability — 18 per cent of the territory's respondents. The vast majority of those cited a pain-related, flexibility or mobility disability.

But some results in that report, such as the severity of disability, included either a note of caution or were considered too unreliable to publish; and Statistics Canada has noted that it struggles to get enough Nunavummiut to respond to some surveys.

'Large numbers of individuals leave'

"We have no data around how many people have a disability," explained Nicole Diakite, the executive director for the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society. 

The society's workers are headed to all 25 of Nunavut's communities between now and next summer to hear from people with disabilities and their caregivers.

For those who do remain in the territory, Diakite said it's difficult for a lot of Nunavummiut with serious mobility issues to access buildings without proper ramps or lifts.

In Nunavut, there are no sidewalks, few paved roads and a lack of accessible transportation, which makes even getting to the local airport an ordeal for many.

There is also a lack of funding and resources to make buildings accessible and safe, Diakite said.

"We have seen large numbers of individuals leave as a result of different disabilities, whether it's physical, intellectual or other barriers that they may experience," she said.

She said when her organization does community surveys, the top concerns are about ramps, snow removal and accessible transportation.

A long recovery

Subgut spent days in emergency and four months in a Winnipeg hospital after his accident, far from his family and friends. When he returned to Rankin Inlet, it was only to spend two more months at the community hospital before being flown back to Winnipeg to start rehabilitation.

Physically, he may never use a walker again, though he and his family are hopeful he'll eventually be able to sit in a wheelchair.

Mentally, the ordeal has taken a toll.

Medication helps keep his spirits up, though it isn't helping much with the pain. He's slowly regaining some of the memory he lost after his accident. 

He spends his days watching movies on an old TV, and longs to be back outside in the fresh air.

"I don't know what to do any more, or who to talk to," he said.

For now, he lies in his hospital bed and dreams of the simple activities he'll do if he ever gets back in a wheelchair.

He'll push himself around the rough roads in Rankin Inlet, across the potholes that mark Kivalliq Street to the Northern Store.

There's a small Tim Hortons inside, where he can grab a coffee. 

Outside, he can sit and have a cigarette, greeting people he knows with a smile.

His sister, Kowtak, has managed to find some small reprieve for her brother — a way to get him out of the hospital, at least for a little time, if infrequently.

That solution came in the form of the Rankin Inlet Fire Department, which loaded Subgut into their ambulance for a ride around town in the fresh air he so desperately wanted.

Fire Chief Mark Wyatt said his department has taken Subgut out several times.

"You can see his face light up every time we do," he said.

His hope is that one day, Subgut will be able to use a wheelchair again, heading to the Northern Store for coffee every day, smiling and saying hello to people he meets. 

"He was out in that wheelchair in blizzards, in whatever — he would get himself around," Wyatt said.

"People here are pretty resilient."