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A young Inuk boy with suspected head trauma waited alone in the Montreal Children’s Hospital emergency room, sobbing.

Transported by air ambulance from a remote community in Nunavik after falling off an all-terrain vehicle, the preschooler couldn’t speak English or French, and no one at the hospital spoke his language. He cried inconsolably. Did his head hurt? Was he seeing double, feeling nauseous or dizzy?

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Pediatricians tried to comfort the whimpering child who was unable to tell them why he was crying. Hours passed before an Inuktitut speaker arrived. Only then did they understand: the boy was crying for his mother.

That boy was among 51 seriously ill children flown from northern Quebec for emergency care at the Montreal Children’s last year, some after experiencing falls, burns, car crashes and poisonings. Others had illnesses ranging from meningitis and appendicitis to infections and respiratory distress. All of the children had conditions that could deteriorate if not treated quickly. Although these patients needed serious medical interventions including surgery, no parent was present to consent to treatment. Or to comfort their traumatized child.