I will miss Carol Mulligan.
I will miss her enthusiasm, her energy and her persistence tracking the story.
I first met her when we began the campaign to find a home for alternative level of care (ALC) patients. This was way back in 2008, when we were in the midst moving to one hospital site from three. We were in trouble.
Our new home could not accommodate all our ALC patients. Carol’s investigative reporting helped shape the community consensus that something had to be done and done soon: A home for 130 patients in what had been the Sudbury Memorial Hospital.
Carol was still on the ALC trail in May of this year. All non-life and limb-threatening transfers from out of town were cancelled due to lack of space at Health Sciences North. Some things do not change.
She retired from the Sudbury Star in 2017. We took her out for dinner to celebrate her career. Pretty soon thereafter, she took on freelance reporting for Northern Life on, as no surprise, health care.
Carol asked me to attend a meeting of personal support workers gathered to discuss their plight and gather public support in 2018. She wrote to me this May asking about the hospital budget and how it would affect front-line workers. We met for coffee and shot the breeze.
I wonder who will follow her path. Will there be someone who will follow the story to wherever it may lead, looking for the truth?
Goodbye Carol. Sudbury thanks you for all your work on our behalf.
Dr. Peter Zalan
Sudbury