Greater Victoria firefighters donate funds to help sick kids
Firefighters from across Greater Victoria made a special trip to Victoria General Hospital on Thursday, putting smiles on the faces of sick children with a drive-by in their engines, and donating $25,000 to the Victoria Hospitals Foundation in support of pediatric care.
“We need donations like this in order to provide the equipment,” said Emma Carrick, the manager of Victoria General Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit. “We’ve got the staff, we've got the skill, but we need to have the equipment in order to be able to provide that safe care for patients,” said Carrick.
It’s care that eight-month-old Romy Handy received when she was born just before Christmas. Her mother, Greer Handy, said Romy needed five hours of surgery the day after she was born, but is thriving now.
“The staff here just made everything a lot easier. It was kind of, you know, an unbearable thing to go through that they made possible,” said Greer.
This is the twelfth year that professional firefighters in the region have made the contribution – amounting to a total of $300,000 in donations so far -- that have bought equipment including ventilators and cardiac ultrasound systems for kids. This year’s donation is being used to buy a labour and delivery bed for the operating room.
“There’s not a lot of ICU care for children in the province,” said Carrick. “We take children from all over the Island, and we also take overflow from B.C. Children’s when they’re full.”
Thursday’s donation was personal for one of the firefighters and his family. Taylor and Chelsey Britton’s son, Hayes, was born prematurely. He spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit at VGH.
“Just a very scary time and just feeling very supported by the staff [who] are amazing and just knowing that they have the life-saving equipment if they need it,” said Chelsey Thursday.
It’s that life-saving equipment that allows Victoria General Hospital to operate one of only two pediatric ICU's in B.C., allowing newborns, young children and their families to get the critical care they need, without the extra stress of having to leave Vancouver Island.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.