By Victoria Hospital Foundation

How I Aged Five Years in One Week

Oct 20, 2015 | 3:07 PM

As I sat down to write this year’s Give a Little Life message, I smiled a little, and I shuddered a little.  I smiled because I have never felt so passionate about my work since joining our Foundation.  But I shuddered also.  Because in a strange twist of fate, it seems I have had a personal story to tell each time I put pen to paper.  And today is no different. 

As most of us know, this year our community will come together for our Intensive Care Unit of the Victoria Regional Hospital.  

Intensive Care.  This term did not hold any special meaning to me – until the afternoon of September 28.  That was the day I learned from a staff member that my 65 year old and strong as an ox father, was rushed into emergency with a suspected heart attack and who was in respiratory distress.

My father, who does live with a heart condition, is in remarkable health and incredibly strong and energetic.  In fact, my brother and I often joke that he should have been a marine.  So you can understand why I wasn’t convinced yet that anything serious was going on.  But I was wrong.  I was so very wrong.  When he went unconscious and experienced respiratory failure, our ICU team had to intubate him to help him breathe and stabilize him.   It is hard for my generation to see our parents, who are still young and vibrant, become vulnerable and in need of rescue.  Remember, our parents have always been the ones who do the rescuing, not the other way around.

After 5 days in our ICU, an ambulance ride to Saskatoon for tests, our dad was home for Thanksgiving, sitting at the head of the table of a traditional meal my mother made with love, and he was saying grace.   My dad is going to be just fine.  And I cannot emphasize enough, that he would not have been, without our ICU.   That’s three family members of mine in 7 years who this hospital has saved the lives of.   I am passionate about this hospital.  And I know you are too.

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This year, our ICU needs 7 telemetry units, equipment that could virtually double the size of our ICU but more importantly, save lives.  They are expensive, but they are vital.  Miracles can happen each day in our ICU, I invite you to be part of one this year on December 4.  And I am praying that perhaps next year, I will NOT have a personal life and death story to tell you.