February 8, 2012

Sick Kids

Labatt Family Heart Centre  



I have been hearing about Sick Kids since I was a little girl, I have seen thousands of commercials raising funds, I have gotten all the brochures for the Sick Kids lottery. Yet, until I was booked into the Fetal Echo lab at Sick Kids I had never really thought too much about it. The hospital ads, the lottery, the stories, they all seemed so far removed, it happens to other people. Knowing that it can happen to you changes things. When Josh was born he was stabilized at Mt. Sinai and then rushed to Sick Kids, and I began to learn about this amazing hospital. The staff, some of whom have gotten to know Josh and us very well are warm and loving. The have on occasion even heard we were in the hospital and come looking for us to say hi. They are specialists, in not just Cardiology but with kids and with parents. The information I am giving you today (again in honor of CHD awareness month on this Blog) is about the Labatt Family Heart Centre.

The Labatt Family Heart Centre was established in February 2007. The extraordinary generosity of the Labatt Family allowed the former Cardiac Program to move forward with a series of important internal initiatives, funding the redevelopment and future activities of the Heart Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children.

VISION

We will be the best paediatric and congenital heart disease centre in the world. CURRENT STATE  The Labatt Family Heart Centre brings together significant interdisciplinary and interprofessional activities within Paediatric Cardiology, Cardiovascular Surgery, Cardiac Critical Care, Cardiovascular Research and Adult Congenital Heart Disease programs, thus allowing the Heart Centre to address the needs of patients and families from fetal life through to adulthood.

The Heart Centre at SickKids promotes these activities through seamless integration of research activities, academic performance and exemplary clinical care.  Membership within the Centre consists of SickKids' clinicians, researchers and educators from nursing, medicine, surgery, perfusion, respiratory therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, social work, child life, diagnostic imaging technologists, and pharmacy. Additional membership is drawn from outside SickKids and includes adult cardiologists from the University Health Network (UHN), Mount Sinai Hospital and Hamilton Health Sciences as well as paediatric cardiologists in London Health Sciences, McMaster Children's Hospital , Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (Ottawa), and Kingston General Hospital.

Key linkages with other proposed centres (Genetics, Cancer and Blood, Healthy Breathing) will further enhance the integration of the Heart Centre within the framework of the larger SickKids Community.  Many other professional and ancillary groups participate in Heart Centre activities with a greater or lesser clinical, research, and/or administrative relationship.

Cardiac Imaging, while remaining under the auspices of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging, is an integral part of the Heart Centre, as is Cardiac Anaesthesia, under the Department of Anaesthesia. Similar healthy collaboration exists with the Division of Genetics, the Division of Respiratory Medicine, the Division of Neurology and virtually all of the other subspecialties.

The complex nature of congenital heart disease and its genetic and syndromic associations require a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach.  We are the largest member of the Pediatric Cardiac Network of Ontario (PCN), a provincial forum which has become an important part of the organization of children's cardiac services in Ontario.

Through this forum, via a variety of means, i.e. regular telehealth conferences with cardiologists and surgeons from London, McMaster, and Ottawa, referral of patients, discussion of problems, and regular patient follow-up are all achieved between the groups.

There is also a network of community Cardiologists within Toronto. Each of these individuals work in a collaborative and supportive manner. Several provide part-time echocardiography staff coverage within the Echo Lab, and all attend our clinical meetings for continuing medical education, referral of patients, and development of research studies. New patient referrals to SickKids, and known patients requiring pre and postoperative follow-up, are triaged to our community cardiologists along well established guidelines, significantly reducing the outpatient work load at SickKids.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Our vision of premier international excellence is based on the four pillars of our mission:      Unsurpassed, measurable patient outcomes     Innovative, practice-changing research     Superb education, training and quality of work life     Exemplary patient and family satisfaction

Feel free to visit the website, learn about what great things Sick Kids is doing, and how you can get involved!

Upcoming Events for Heart Month:  (At Sick Kids)

A blood pressure reading, is what you’re needing,For a healthy start, to loving your heart!

1)February is Healthy Heart Month and Occupational Health and Safety Services is holding their annual Blood Pressure Day Clinic on Monday February 13th, from 11:30-13:30 in the Garden Patio.

Please join us for a healthy snack and a game of Nintendo Wii while you wait to get your blood pressure checked.  A Registered Dietician and a Pharmacist will also be available to answer your heart related questions.

2) Show the Cardiology Technologists some love by attending Heart Centre Day on Feb. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Garden Patio. Come out and have some fun and learn about the great work the Centre is doing. Kids can bring their teddy bears for a heart checkup

2 comments:

  1. hello my name is nicole and I wanted to reach out to you kinda for selfish reasons lol because I too am a mother of a sick kids heart centre baby. this last November my daughter Kaydence who was 2months old was having trouble breathing so me and my husband decided to rush her to Mac Master children's hospital in Hamilton we were not expecting nor prepared for what the next 48hr was going to in tale. at the hospital they put the o2 sensor on her and her reading was 35 but the nurse wasn't really worried because she was sleeping and not acting in any distress so she thought her sensor was wrong after a good 10min of trying to get a "proper" reading they realized that that was her actual reading they rushed her back into the er and started doing a number of things to my poor baby and a social worker was sent to console us they were preparing us for the worst and i thought my world was crashing to a end they rushed her from the er into the ICU where after 3 hrs of no one coming to talk to us was the longest 3hrs of my life. they then told us that our daughter has critical aortic stenosis and that she is lucky to be alive they would be sending her to sick kids and that there would be no room for us to ride with her so we should head there and we would meet them there. we arrived at 7 and she did not show up till 11 we later found out that she did not show up till then because she kept going into cardiac arrest. At sick kids that day they mainly tried to keep her stable and prepare us for the next day when they would have to do a balloon dilatation. that night was the first night i had ever been away from daughter and all i could think was what did i do in life that my daughter was suffering but i know that as a mother we always blame ourselves for the way god works and i do believe more than ever that god does work in mysterious ways. we are from a very small town and I thank god everyday that my pregnancy and labor went as well as they did because if anything would have gone wrong my small town hospital would not have know what to do. sick kids saved my daughters life that day and i will never forget that. she is in no means outta the woods we have to go to sick kids and mac on a weekly basis but if sick kids would have not got her when they did my story would have been a completely different one. I seen your pick of your son and the sign and i just really hit home for me and i wanted to contact you to tell you that there is always someone out there that knows exactly how you feel. I thank you for this blog i know it has helped me feel a bit better.

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  2. I am always amazed by the stories I hear through this Blog... by the kids who have astounded many. I God truly works miracles. Thank you for sharing your story!! I am working hard to get Congenital Heart Defects awareness going, and to make sure these kids and the ones not born yet stand a chance. I would love to hear more of your story... email me! lauriehaughton@me.com! I am putting together a bunch of stories of heart kids and would love to use it for the CHD awareness month here on the Blog (February!). Thanks again for the note! I love hearing from readers, it encourages me to no end!

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