THUNDER BAY -- The effort to bring cardiovascular surgery is getting closer to success.
But the organization behind the drive still needs about another $3 million to reach its $14-million fundraising goal.
On Wednesday the Our Hearts At Home Cardiovascular Campaign announced a multi-millon dollar capital campaign to bring full cardiac surgery to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
Campaign chair Paul Fitzpatrick said Northwestern Ontario is a region where a large percentage of the population faces serious medical issues, including a high rate of cardiac disease, along with high rates of diabetes and stroke.
He said having access close to home to cardiovascular surgery will save both limbs and lives.
“Thunder Bay is the only major city in Ontario where access to cardiac surgery is a day’s drive away, or more,” Fitzpatrick said.
“Faced with heart problems like blocked coronary arteries, time is critical. Now it’s our time to create local access for our families and friends, who have a great need for both cardiac and vascular surgery, and to guarantee that care in unquestionably world-class. These new surgical services will have a tremendous impact for the over 1,000 patients and their families who will be able to have surgery close to home.”
The cardiovascular surgery program at Thunder Bay Regional has been developed in partnership with the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the University Health Network.
It’s the proximity to home that sold the idea to Barry Rubin, the program medical director at both PMCC and UHN.
“No patient in Northwestern Ontario should have to travel 1,000 kilometres to Toronto, Hamilton, London or Ottawa to have a standard aortic aneurysm repair or heart bypass surgery, be separated from their family in the process, and then be returned home after surgery far from the nurses and doctors who provided their care,” Rubin said.
“If patients have complex needs or require redo surgery, they can be managed at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and returned to Thunder Bay Regional for full recovery.”
Cardiac patients in Northwestern Ontario have long rued the stress of having to leave their hometown for surgery.
Donna Pento had triple bypass surgery in Hamilton a number of years ago, when she was 58.
“I was shocked when I found out I couldn’t have the surgery here,” she said. “I had no idea I would have to go out of town. You don’t realize all the additional stress of travelling away from home for a procedure like this until you’ve gone through it and I can see why some people chose not to go.
“No one should have to travel that far, possibly, without their support system, to have crucial, life-saving care.”
To make cardiovascular surgery a reality at the hospital, an existing operating room will have to be expanded and equipped with devices, such a perfusion machines to circulate blood and oxygen while the heart is stopped. A new dedicated operating room will have to be constructed and equipped for vascular surgery, as well as a 14-bed step-down ward for patient recovery. Additionally, a vascular laboratory and clinic will also need to be built.
Donations to the Our Hearts at Home Cardiovascular Campaign can be made online at OurHeartsAtHome.ca, by phone at 345-4673, in person at the hospital donation centre or by mail.
