Staff compassion celebrated on Give a Little Life day

It was the middle of the night when a Prince Albert couple had to rush their two-year-old daughter to the Victoria Hospital’s emergency room on Nov 2.  

Rawlco Radio’s Power 99’s morning show co-host Chelsea and her husband didn’t have to wait long for their daughter to be checked out.

“We woke up in a panic, it was so scary. In our experience, it was lucky there wasn’t any lineups and [we] got in quite quickly. It was incredible because the [doctor] was right on, he said ‘you know we need to get an X-ray done’ and all this stuff.”

It turned out Chelsea’s daughter had pneumonia and eventually a part of the two-year-old’s lung collapsed and started leaking fluid.

Chelsea said the doctors and nurses were on top of which route the family should take and had her daughter admitted to the pediatric unit right away.

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“With the doctors and the nursing staff, it’s hard to express how to say thank you because the compassion these people have and they’re working such long hours, it’s such a scary time as a parent and you’re wowed by the things that they do to help you. We had a good experience, we were really lucky.”

As a new parent, Chelsea said she had some breakdowns while at the hospital, but the staff was amazing at helping to calm her down.

“As new nurses would come on, I would say ‘have they warned you about us’ or stuff like that because I cried a lot. The compassion and patience that they had to with me especially was just incredible. They would explain and take the time and listen to my five million questions, so it was good.”

Eventually her daughter had to be transferred to a hospital in Saskatoon.

Chelsea said despite the fact that her parents live in Saskatoon, she said it would have been easier to stay at home in Prince Albert.

“Things like my clothes, being [at the Vic] I didn’t leave her room at all, [so] my husband would go home and do laundry and bring things we needed from home. So things like that do make a big difference.”

She said with going to Saskatoon, they had to make arrangements to have someone look after their dog as well.

“As a new mom, this was a new experience for me and I’m sitting there thinking ‘am I being as proactive as I possibly can be for my daughter, am I asking the right questions’. Obviously, we have the equipment [at the Vic] that is great and it works but it never crossed my mind the thought of ‘do we have the best?’ And as a mother you want the best.”

She said it’s cool to see the community to come together during Give A Little Life day and hopes they can come out again and help with this year’s campaign.

Her daughter is now at home doing just fine.

The big day is finally here for the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert: Friday is the Ninth Annual Give a Little Life day.

The event is a way for the hospital to raise much needed funds to purchase things like new equipment.

This year, all of the money raised through the campaign will be used to purchase new equipment for the pediatric and nursery units.

If you’d like to donate online you can click here. 

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid