One morning in early May 2023, Helena Chu fell in her bedroom. For most people, that might mean a few bumps and bruises. For Helena, it kicked off the fight of her life.
Helena didn’t realize she had a bacterial infection, which had weakened her and caused her fall. A paraplegic since a car accident in 1991, she crawled to the bathroom hoping to use accessibility handles to lift herself up, but she was too weak.
“I wasn’t panicked yet. I thought – okay, I’m tired, I haven’t had have enough sleep, so I pulled down some towels and covered myself to take a nap, thinking I’d have some strength when I woke up.”
She awoke what she thought was a few hours later to hear her friend calling from the front door. Her friend had asked the building manager to unlock the door when she hadn’t been able to reach her, but it was locked from the inside. When her friend said she was going to call the fire department to break down the door, Helena mustered what little strength she had left to crawl to the front door and unlock it, after which she passed out.
I would just see what I have that day … look at what’s around me and try to make up a story. In that limited area, with those limited materials, I just built my own joy.”
She had been on the floor for three and a half days, not a few hours. Doctors later told her that another half a day and she would likely have died. Helena was brought to Sunnybrook Veterans Centre as a community patient, as she fit the criteria for the Centre’s palliative care unit.
“When I got to Sunnybrook, they found I had bacteria in my blood and a very bad pressure sore on my back that was infected. I started to have kidney and liver failure, and the doctors and my family didn’t think I would make it,” recalls Helena.
Helena received a total of seven surgeries, mostly aimed at treating the infection in her spinal cord. She was on an IV drip for six months, getting MRI tests every six weeks to see if the infection was gone.
“I came in on May 3, and I was hoping maybe I could get home for the end of the summer … no, not happening. Then Fall comes and I think maybe I can go see the Fall colours … no, not happening. So then I was crossing my fingers thinking ‘please, please let me go home before Christmas… and I made it.”
A few months into her stay at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre, Helena was feeling well enough to start taking advantage of the art therapy program. She had shared some photos from a birding trip to Ecuador with some of the nurses and art therapists, and they encouraged her to get creative. Her background is in photography, and she had developed a unique technique of photographing one-inch figurines placed in everyday settings to tell a story. She had her sister bring her ‘little people’ to the hospital and set to work on a new series.
Helena Chu photography series.
“You don’t need a lot … you only need one to do some storytelling. So my dinner, my table, the syringe I used every day, my pic line … unless I was in the garden, 90 per cent of the photos were done from my bed,” says Helena.
Helena’s work was featured in the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre’s Art Show, which happened in mid-November, just after she was able to go home. The series is called Live from K-Wing and subtitled Sunnybrook saved my life. Photography saved my soul. Shot with her iPhone, the images are bright and whimsical, and show no hint at all of the artist’s pain, fear and confinement to a hospital bed.
“I would just see what I have that day … look at what’s around me and try to make up a story. In that limited area, with those limited materials, I just built my own joy,” Helena recalls, adding that she was strongly supported by art therapist Ana Seara.
Helena Chu photography series.
For her part, Ana was delighted to work with Helena.
“All I do in a nutshell is I pay attention to what Helena is coming in with, what she’s feeling, and I offer opportunities. Then we build a relationship and I support her. I never say no. Dream big, and we’ll find a way to make it happen,” says Ana.
Helena still has some recovery ahead of her before she gets back to her passion of photographing birds around the world, which she does with the help of a close friend who is a very knowledgeable birding guide. She shared how his support helped her on her emotional journey.
“After my car accident, I thought everyone’s carrying their own box in their hands, which is their life. My box used to be pretty with jewelry and everything, and that day, somebody robbed me … they took my box and stuck an ugly one in my hand. I can’t give up because this is my life and I’m not brave enough to let go of my box, but I thought it’s an ugly box now, full of worms.”
When she shared this feeling with a psychologist after her accident, he told her that only fertilized land has worms, and if you work hard on it, you can plant something beautiful.
“He’s right and I told my bird guide, ‘you are one of the gems I found under the soil in my box’.”
