EDMONTON – An Edmonton man who spent 10 months in hospital due to complications from COVID-19 and had most of his toes removed has returned home.

The 62-year-old man who asked that only his first name be published out of fear of backlash from COVID-19 deniers and anti-vaxxers told CTV News Edmonton he doesn’t remember his wife driving him to the University of Alberta Hospital that first night.

That was on Dec. 30, 2020.

Three months later, Eric woke up from an induced coma but his problems were far from over.

CTV News Edmonton reached out to Alberta Health Services to verify Eric’s story. A spokesperson with AHS confirmed his account.

He had spent five weeks on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine to keep him alive. That machine took a toll.

“I had a 10 per cent chance of survival,” said Eric. “I’m a stubborn Dutchman. I made it, but it was at a cost: a fingertip and eight toes.”

Those extremities had to be removed on June 7 because they had become necrotic, meaning they were black and dead.

“For several months after that, of course you’re on the ventilator,” he said. “You can’t talk… At first I couldn’t even move my arms.”

‘I DON’T THINK HE’S GOING TO MAKE IT’

“I can’t tell you how difficult it was laying there, not being able to talk, not being able to barely move.”

“My wife went through an incredible ordeal. Several times, the doctors called her and said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to make it.'”

But Eric did make it.

As he left the ICU, U of A Hospital staff gave him a special send-off.

“Unbeknownst to us, my wife or myself, all of the people that had anything to do with me – the doctors, the nurses, the therapist,” he said. “They lined the hall all the way. And as I was going by they were clapping.”

“That was just so heartwarming. I was the longest stay in there with COVID at that point.”

‘IT’S NOT A CONSPIRACY’

After being bedridden for 10 months, Eric says his muscles are at 40 per cent of where they were before he had COVID-19.

Eric returned home from hospital on Wednesday and has started rehab at the Glenrose Hospital but still has a long road to recovery.

He still needs help from a machine to keep his oxygen levels up. He still is unable to walk on his own.

So now, Eric’s focused on healing and getting his message out.

“I want people to realize that this is a real virus. It’s not made up. It’s not a conspiracy,” he said. “No problems whatsoever before this happened, and if a healthy person can get it, anyone can get it.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s David Ewasuk 

TORONTO — A new report released by Food Banks Canada reveals that visits to food banks across the country have risen by 20 per cent since 2019, a level of demand not seen since the 2008 recession.

Published Thursday, the report is based on a research study involving more than 4,750 food banks and community organizations across the country. Titled HungerCount 2021, it sheds a light on the increasing demand for food bank services across Canada.

Kirstin Beardsley, chief network services officer at Food Banks Canada, notes that while food bank use was high in Canada prior to the pandemic, current conditions are creating the “perfect storm” for a rapidly growing number of visits to food banks across the country.

“You’ve got high housing costs, you’ve got high food costs, and now you’ve got pandemic-related job losses and the claw-back of government supports,” she told CTV News Channel Thursday evening. “We’re seeing that is having a real effect on the number of people who need our support.”

While food insecurity exists in communities across Canada, it’s also largely impacted by regional factors such as labour markets and cost of living, explained Beardsley. The report points to provinces such as Quebec, Alberta and Ontario as having experienced the largest increases in need, at 38 per cent, 29.6 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

“It is driven by increasing job loss,” said Beardsley. “The higher number of urban centres in these provinces have seen astronomical growth. In some cases, food banks have seen their client numbers double since before the pandemic.”

The report also found that one third of clients are children, despite representing 19 per cent of the population, and 1.3 million Canadians visited food banks in March of this year alone.

Among the report’s key policy recommendations is introducing a national rent support program to help Canadians struggling to pay their rent or put food on their table. According to Food Banks Canada, just under 70 per cent of all food bank clients in 2021 live in private rental market housing. Additionally, the vast majority spend most of their income on rent and utilities, leaving little to cover the cost of food.

“When you’ve got low-income folks who are paying above 50 per cent – and in the lowest income brackets, it’s actually upwards of 70, 80, 90 per cent of their monthly income is going towards rent — it’s an untenable situation,” said Beardsley.

By providing support to help clients pay their rent, this will leave them with more spending money for food, Beardsley said.

“Food insecurity in Canada is really an issue related to low incomes and poverty,” she said. “That’s why people go to the food bank. It’s not really about food much at all.”

CALGARY – Could Alberta create a provincial police service?

Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Kaycee Madu will provide details of a study on the feasibility of doing just that at a news conference on Friday.

The conference, from McDougall Centre in Calgary, is being streamed live. 

This is a developing story and will be updated as more details become available…

TORONTO – Former NHL player Georges Laraque has weighed in on the fallout from the Chicago Blackhawks sexual abuse scandal.

In an exclusive interview with TSN’s Rick Westhead on Wednesday, Kyle Beach, a former member of the Blackhawks farm system, came forward to reveal himself as “John Doe” in a sexual abuse complaint from May 2010 involving video coach Brad Aldrich.

The fallout from the interview has exposed failures at almost every level of professional hockey.

Speaking on CTV’s Your Morning Friday Laraque said that while scrutiny and consequences for the coaches and the league for inaction is warranted and necessary, the players who mocked Beach and subjected him to slurs should be also be subject to reprisals.

“If there is consequences for management, there has to be for players also,” Laraque said, calling the players actions “so wrong.”

Laraque said this speaks to the culture of hockey and the league, which he says has made great strides in inclusion and diversity, but there is more to do.

“It’s appalling, it’s disturbing,” Laraque said of Beach’s story. “If there are more athletes out there who are suffering in silence… I hope they can come forward and bring this to light.”

The former NHL player said that it is going to take “real consequences” for change to happen in the league, citing Florida Panthers Head Coach Joel Quenneville’s resignation.

Quenneville was head coach of the Blackhawks from 2008 to 2019, and Beach alleges that Quenneville knew about the abuse and chose to focus on the team’s Stanley Cup run instead.

For more of Laraque’s remarks, click the play button to watch the video.

—

With files from CTVNews.ca’s Ben Cousins

OTTAWA — The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has expanded eligibility guidelines for booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines.

The committee now recommends mRNA boosters to people who received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, adults over the age of 70, front-line health-care workers with a short interval between their first two doses, and people from First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities.

The latest recommendation says the emerging evidence suggests vaccine effectiveness against asymptomatic infection and mild COVID-19 disease may decrease over time, and a booster could help restore protection.

The committee continues to recommend boosters be given six months after the first two doses are received.

The committee found no evidence of widespread waning immunity against severe disease in the general population.

British Columbia has already promised anyone in the province wanting a booster shot of a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine will have access to one by May 2022.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2021.