Even after spending years specializing in pediatrics in New York and Paris, Dr. LeVasseur had to overcome many obstacles before being recognized by her peers and the medical associations of Quebec. It is only through a private act of the legislative Assembly of Quebec that she was finally admitted to the College of physicians and Surgeons of Quebec in 1903.
Dr. LeVasseur’s medical career was dedicated to the care of children in French Canada. She is one of the people responsible for the Foundation of the Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal and in 1923 she also founded, with two colleagues, the Québec Enfant-Jésus hospital. However, she died into total oblivion.
There has been some recognition. Radio-Canada recently had a radio program titled "remarkable but forgotten" and author Pauline Gill has written three historical novels on Ms. LeVasseur, but still there is no official recognition for her significant achievements for the care of children.
Archives Canada library offers the following text:
‟Dr. Irma LeVasseur died in January 1964, without the praise and acknowledgement of the press or her peers. She spent her last days alone in poverty, a sad end for a pioneer who sacrificed everything for her province and country, as well as for children. All her life she fought for her dream: to help others and to practise the profession she loved. We undoubtedly owe women's access to Quebec medical schools and the existence of the pediatric hospitals to Dr. LeVasseur.”