‘Really grateful’: cabinet minister returns to legislature after harrowing battle with sepsis

A Manitoba cabinet minister assumed her seat in the legislature months after a near-death experience — or, in her words, “a moment” that made her want to become an outspoken advocate for women’s health.

MLAs reconvened Oct. 1 to mark the start of the fall session. When they did, Minister of Advanced Education and Training Renée Cable once again was an active part of question period.

The 46-year-old mother from Windsor Park was absent for much of the spring because of a severe infection and subsequent complications.

“I’m really grateful that I got the care I needed and was able to pull through,” said Cable, after she recalled regaining consciousness in hospital following 48 hours of panic among her loved ones.

A recent sepsis diagnosis made Cable reassess her priorities and realize how important it is to listen to her body.

The hardest part of being bedridden for the condition, which she knew little about before April, was accepting she needed to temporarily abandon her busy calendar to rest.

“You don’t want to accept that there’s something outside of your control, but also, you feel the pressure of these obligations that are not going to go away just because you’re unavailable,” the mother of two said.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition “that occurs when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs,” the Canadian Sepsis Foundation says on its website. The national not-for profit estimates sepsis accounts for one in every 18 deaths in Canada.

The Southdale MLA, who is Red River Métis, shared her experience as a critical patient in a health-care system her party billed as broken during the 2023 election campaign.

She said she was met with compassionate care during her time in hospital and did not think twice about disclosing that she was Indigenous during triage — something she would have felt hesitant to do 15 years ago.

Feel-good headlines about the health-care sector are few and far between as of late, she noted.

Cable spent eight days at St. Boniface Hospital in April. Her gallbladder was removed after a series of tests revealed she had sepsis in an organ that had long been causing pain under her ribs when she sat in certain positions.

The cause of her original infection remains a mystery.

She slowly eased back into full-time work, starting in early June.

“My caucus colleagues (and bureaucrats) really stepped up to let me heal, which is really humbling and difficult for somebody who is pretty independent,” Cable said, noting she feels she has “IOUs” with every person who works out of the Manitoba Legislative Building in downtown Winnipeg.

Cable unseated Progressive Conservative health minister Audrey Gordon in the 2023 election. Her constituency recorded one of the highest voter turnout rates (nearly 65 per cent) in the province.

River Heights MLA Mike Moroz served as acting minister of advanced education and training, a change that was made with little fanfare, when she was away for two months earlier this year.

Unlike in October 2024 when Premier Wab Kinew’s then-education minister went on leave, there was no news release issued to announce Cable was stepping away.

Nello Altomare died on Jan. 14. The retired principal from Transcona indicated last fall that his leave was going to be temporary because he still had “plenty of juice” left, but needed to heed doctors’ orders.

Cable noted that the NDP caucus has been through “a lot of loss.” Former Thompson MLA Danielle Adams died in a crash in 2021.

Cable said she has been thinking a lot about women’s health and the importance of taking care of one’s well-being after the ordeal.

She wants to remind other women, especially mothers, not to prioritize everything else ahead of their physical health.

“When I first heard the Barbie monologue, I wept like a baby because it’s so true,” Cable said as she spoke about the commitments she juggles and sacrifices she makes as a mother of two, one of whom is school-aged, and a wife and elected official.

The 2023 box-office hit’s turning point is an emotional speech delivered by Gloria, played by America Ferrera, in which her character outlines the “impossible” and often paradoxical expectations placed on 21st century women.

Days before showing up to an emergency room, Cable booked a doctor’s appointment via Medinav to inquire about a persistent cold.

When she got there, owing to the way she was seated and related pain in her upper-right torso, she remembered to raise that longstanding issue, too.

The minister was prescribed antibiotics for a sinus infection and booked for a gallbladder ultrasound that was fast-tracked when she checked into St. Boniface Hospital later that week.

Cable said she plans to spend more quality time with her children now that she’s in good health, as well as consider the legacy she wants to leave behind.

“Part of it is helping to lift up other people and reminding people that their voice matters and that their health matters,” she said.

This story was originally published in The Free Press. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.