Arming the brightest minds with the best tools
Elliot is alive today thanks to his team of specialists and generous supporters of the Alberta Children’s Hospital.
Nine-year-old Elliot owes his life to a lot of people, including hundreds he hasn’t even met.
Elliot is back to his healthy, happy self thanks to highly skilled specialists at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and generous community members who funded the technology he needed when his life depended on it.
When Elliot began throwing up and complaining of a bad headache, his parents took him to the local hospital near their home in Eckville, where doctors suspected he had a stomach flu. The next day though, Elliot’s condition deteriorated drastically and he became unresponsive.
Paramedics rushed him to the hospital in Red Deer by ambulance. His blood pressure was spiking and he began to have seizures. Doctors there knew he needed the experts at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, so they called in the Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team to get him there safely and quickly by ambulance. Like a mobile intensive care unit, this dedicated team of specialists stabilize and transport children from smaller hospitals to the Alberta Children’s Hospital and is made possible by generous community support.
Once in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the hospital, neurologists monitored Elliot’s brain, ruling out any injury, damage or mass, while intensivists turned their attention to his kidneys. Using a portable point-of-care ultrasound, funded by supporters of the Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon, they discovered four tumours attached to Elliot’s adrenal glands. Each measured about three centimetres and was contributing to his dangerously high blood pressure.
“When he woke up, the first thing he said was, ‘Hi Mom’, and we all breathed a sigh of relief, but hearing he would need surgery to remove four tumours was a huge shock,” says his mom, Christy.
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Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team
Critical illness or injury are not confined to the Calgary area. For young patients and their families living in rural centres without immediate access to expert pediatric care, the Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team from the Alberta Children’s Hospital is literally their lifeline.
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First his team needed to get his blood pressure under control with medication, and he was encouraged to eat a high salt diet to help keep it stable in preparation for removing the tumours. That meant a three-week stay in the PICU prior to surgery, which Elliot thought was just fine.
“His nurses treated him like a rock star,” says Christy. “They played video games with him, he ate like a king — including his favourite mac and cheese — and one nurse even took him in his wheelchair down to the cafeteria and bought him a pop.”
Then, on his 20th day in hospital, pediatric general surgeon Dr. Natalie Yanchar and her team meticulously removed all four tumours, including one close to his aorta, along with both of Elliot’s adrenal glands.
“He was able to bring his favourite stuffy, a puppy he named ‘Mom’, into the operating room with him, and when he came out of surgery, it had a dressing on its tummy too!” says Christy.
Thanks to a team of geneticists and donor-funded DNA sequencing technology at the hospital, Elliot and his family have learned he has a genetic condition making him prone to tumours in his organs. He is now closely followed by his team of endocrinologists and oncologists. “It’s amazing how the DNA sequencer was able to give us answers so quickly and now, with our screening regimen, if another tumour pops up, we can deal with it fast,” says Christy. “We are grateful to our specialists at the hospital and generous people in the community who support them with the best technology to help kids like Elliot. To us, they are all angels.”
To give them the clearest view of his tumours during the complex operation, Elliot’s surgeons used equipment called a surgical retractor. By sharing his story during a special equipment power hour at the 21st annual Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon, Elliot inspired listeners to fund a newer, more advanced surgical retractor for the hospital.
Elliot’s story appears in our Spring 2024 Just 4 Kids newsletter. Make sure you check out the other amazing stories!
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