Agents of Change | A doctor who refuses to be quiet

They create news. They are agents of change in their field. But we know little or nothing about them. Pres Gives you that all summer long.

Caroline Tousin
Pres

“What does a doctor do about the environment?”

Or the classic: “You have to treat people. »

Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers often receives such comments after media intervention.

At the age of 30, the young woman begins to practice medicine.

And yet, his expertise is already in demand everywhere.

Universities invite him to lecture. He also has a master’s degree in environment and often appears on television. He signs open letters in newspapers.

“If I diagnosed you with a serious illness and I didn’t tell you about it, you’d be mad at me, wouldn’t you?” asks a doctor at a recent TEDx conference, which can be summed up as follows: Talking about climate change can save lives.

D^D Pétrin-Desrosiers does not hesitate to criticize political parties on social networks that make decisions that harm the environment and human health.

“Yes, sometimes we struggle a bit,” said the man, who has been training at CLSC d’Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for a few months. Because yes, she heals people too, no offense to her detractors.

It was not said in a spitting tone. Or even challenge. When decision makers harm people’s health in favor of the economy, the scientist refuses to remain silent. In his view, this is part of his role as a doctor.

Last April, in the same week, the Quebec government approved increasing air emissions limits for nickel and federal environment minister and former environmentalist Steven Guilbelde announced the next day that he would approve Bay du Nord oil. megaproject, she laments.

” [Cette semaine-là]I said to myself: “I need a break”, she says before bursting into laughter.

If she’s smiling, she’s restless despite bad weather news. No slowing down. Even in its flow. The young woman speaks very fast. As if she was afraid that time would pass to express her sense of urgency.

Incidentally in medicine

Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers chose medicine “accidentally”. A high school teacher had recommended the garden to him. In his family, there is no scientist. But she has a role model for school perseverance: her mother.

This farmer’s daughter – 10^e Of 12 children – left the family estate to attend secretarial studies. Then she became interested in studies. “My mother completed her undergraduate studies when I was in Secondary 4,” praises the doctor.

At the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montreal, a young woman from Catino had the sensation of landing on another planet. “About 50%—maybe more—of the students in the class have medical parents,” she says. Talking about drugs was an obvious thing for them. I was like, “Come on, should this be part of my basic knowledge?” »

She often wondered what she was doing there. She almost didn’t become a doctor after failing her cardiology course and retakes – by one percentage point! Technically, that excluded him from the program.

Faculty officials later recommended that he turn himself in. At the same time, he is criticized for not putting his energies in the right place.

During that time, he was very involved in the Medical Students’ Association making connections between community health, global health and human rights. This dedication, she contends, was her “breath of fresh air” to get the courses she demands.

He is given a retirement year.

He will be the External Vice-President of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Unions. His tenure will take him to the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva and to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Peru.

After his sabbatical year, he has to resume his second year of medicine (including coursework). If it fails again, it’s over. Later in her career, when she chooses her specialty, everyone sees her — including herself — in public health.

New setback: She doesn’t get one of the few spots available. She had to fall back on her second major: family medicine.

“Honestly, I’m so glad I didn’t go into public health,” she says looking back. “I have the freedom to say what I want, it depends on my own credibility. I am not subject to government officials,” he continues.

The interview takes place on a fine Friday in June in the basement of a building at the Université de Montréal. He hosts a symposium on sustainable health.

“The best medicine for the environment is the medicine we don’t prescribe,” he tells the audience, which is mostly made up of older colleagues. The report raises an eyebrow or two. He works with his colleagues in Quebec to encourage them to participate in the Prescription-Nature movement. The idea is to recommend exposure to nature for their patients.

Earlier in the day, the young doctor held a similar conference at CHUM – which has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. He sees this kind of commitment as a sign that the climate emergency is increasingly being felt, rather than falling into “naïve optimism.” . At least in the health sector.

His “great life inspiration” is an Australian doctor named Nick Watts. in appearance Lancet Countdown – a major report published every year by the prestigious medical journal on the links between human health and climate change – the young scientist became the head of sustainable development of the UK health network (NHS). The NHS aims to be the first healthcare network in the world to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

Raw reality

Her patients at Hochelaga-Maisonneuve remind her every day why she doesn’t want to be quiet. The other day a 3-year-old child came to her office for an asthma consultation. The little one lives near Notre-Dame Street, which has a lot of car traffic.

“When we talk about pollution, the increase in trucking in Notre-Dame because of Ray-Mont Logistics, a little guy like him could end up in the emergency room with seizures, asthma. It’s super concrete,” he says.

D^D Pétrin-Desrosiers is president of the Quebec Association of Doctors for the Environment. It is in this capacity that he continues to appear in the news. He has demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency hear the entire Ray-Mont Logistics project. According to the association, an increase in air pollution is inevitable with a project creating a heat island and an increase in trucking.

act of rebellion

Does she care about the environment? We ask him.

“It’s natural to worry about the future,” replies the person who likes a wide range of “environmental emotions.” A psychiatrist told me: “We should no longer ask ourselves: What is the problem with people who do not feel environmental anxiety?” »

People of his generation even choose not to have children to save the earth. “We’re protecting the environment so we can continue to live there,” he says. It’s very personal, but for me, having children is faith. This is part of the act of rebellion. Meaning: We will continue. »

The thirty-year-old didn’t want to stop there. He assumed new responsibilities at his alma mater. He is now responsible for planetary health in the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine at the University of Montreal. Not bad for a girl who almost didn’t graduate.