Kids and Families

Bravery is contagious. Seeing a sick toddler reassure her worried mom with a gentle pat on the shoulder does wonders for adjusting your perspective on the world.

It’s amazing how so often kids face illness and injury with far better attitudes than grownups. They inspire their families and all who witnesses their courage. With 80,000 children relying on care from our hospital every year, the courage quotient is high in our community.

Listen to stories from our families at the 2012 Caring for Kids Radiothon

Read more stories as told by parents & loved ones

Rowan

While it’s difficult to imagine a five-week-old baby having cancer, Connor and Lindsay Winslow were actually relieved when they found out their daughter, Rowan, had Neuroblastoma type 4S - the only cancer that can spontaneously regress upon removal of the tumour. 

“If Rowan’s surgeon could remove the tumour perfectly, there was a very good chance the cancer in her bones would disappear without having to put our baby through chemotherapy,”  says Lindsay.

“There are a multitude of chain reactions in these surgeries that we need to anticipate and respond to. No tumour surgery is ever text book, and it certainly wasn’t in Rowan’s case,” says Dr. Beaudry. “She required some incredibly delicate work and I can honestly say that a special piece of equipment funded by the community - the Mini Bookler Retractor - helped us provide that. Her surgery was absolutely safer and we were able to give her back to her parents sooner because we had it.”

After months of follow-up scans, Lindsay couldn’t be happier. “It’s gone! Rowan has absolutely no cancer cells left in her body! It’s absolutely amazing. She’ll still come to the hospital for scans every few months so we can keep an eye on things. We’re relieved and so grateful”

“It makes me tear up to think that people who don’t even know us, provided equipment that helped our daughter. From her cancer team to her surgeons, Rowan had so many people at the hospital looking out for her. As well as being incredibly talented, the surgeons here are kind and compassionate. We feel blessed to live in a community that is equally as compassionate.”

Aizad

On September 27th, Saher was waiting for her son, Aizad, to come home from school when the doorbell rang. A woman at the door told Saher she needed to come quick, that she thought it may be her son, Aizad, who was just hit by a car—and the woman was holding Aizad’s backpack.  Mom ran to the scene, there was so much blood and trauma that she couldn’t make out who the child was, until she recognized her son’s shoe in the street. 

They raced by ambulance to the children’s hospital where trauma teams began frantically trying to save the boy’s life. At one point, mum says the doctors came to tell them that their son’s heart had stopped and they were trying their best to revive him. They did revive him but his injuries were horrific. Aizad had broken every single bone in his face, he had a brain hemorrhage, lung punctures, spleen damage, broken legs, severed spine, broken wrists and many other life-threatening injuries. Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Rod Harrop says that he has never seen a child with so many traumatic facial injuries.

Once he was stabilized in ICU, the long and painful recovery process began. Saher says that they measured how well he was doing by the tubes that were slowly disappearing day by day. He spent 3 weeks in ICU and had 4 long surgeries to begin repairing his face—he had a shunt, feeding tube and for weeks communicated using a writing tablet—today, he has 15 plates in his face. Mom says that they have no way to repay the huge team of people at the hospital who have helped their family. From nurses like Holly, to the many doctors, this is a true calling and because of them, the family feels that they have witnessed miracles.