Stefano’s Stories: Donors follow their hearts to help kids

February is #HeartMonth, and we at the Children’s Hospital Foundation are so deeply grateful for supporters who follow their hearts to help kids. Over the last four years donors have helped to transform the lives of kids who need cardiac care – kids like Max.

When Max was born, he had eight holes in his heart as well as narrow airways. As a baby he suffered from cardiac arrest and a massive gastrointestinal bleed, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, blood clots, a paralyzed vocal cord among other challenges. He even needed open heart surgery. Before his first birthday, Max had more than 20 surgeries and spent a significant amount of time in hospital connected to remote monitored equipment.

You can imagine, remote monitored equipment allows health care teams to keep a close eye on kids’ vital signs while they’re in hospital without being right beside them. Children’s Hospital’s amazing staff can check in on any patient from any of the centralized monitoring locations. Previously HSC Children’s only had four beds with these capabilities, so kids were often moved based on changing needs. This caused unnecessary stress for our dear kids, their parents and those taking care for them.

I’m so pleased to share that thanks to $6.5 million of generous donor support we will be able to outfit all 100 inpatient beds at Children’s with this game-changing technology. By the fall of this year, Wi-Fi, smart badge technology and minor room improvements will be completed. This fantastic news will help give better care to kids and is so meaningful for the health care heroes who look after them.

All of us at Children’s are extremely grateful for the support you’ve given. I am asking for one more favour. As you know, delays in postal service at the end of 2024 reduced year-end donations to Children’s Hospital Foundation. Donations like these are specifically needed to help fund new surgical equipment and the ground-breaking child health research done right here.

The federal government announced that they are extending the 2024 tax receipt deadline to February 28, 2025. We encourage you to donate now to support high priority needs in Children’s Hospital.

One more thing – when you sign up for email receipts, you will receive your tax receipt faster and reduce costs to the Foundation for receipt mailing. If you wish to switch to e-receipts, please contact info@goodbear.ca with your request.

Your support of the Foundation helps kids like Janessa, our 2024 Champion Child who we celebrated at the end of January 2024. What a year it’s been for her! She is from Pukatawagan and is our first Champion from a remote First Nation. Living about 800 km north of Winnipeg made getting the care she needed at HSC Children’s Hospital difficult and required many sacrifices by her and her family. After countless trips to Children’s, they eventually had to move to Winnipeg where at 12 years old, Janessa had a kidney transplant. Janessa remains positive back in her home community. All of us are so extremely proud of Janessa and everything she accomplished as the 2024 Champion Child. Read more about Janessa’s incredible story.

Thank you!