The Power of Giving

Nervous fathers bringing baby carriers into the hospital, getting ready to take their newborn home. Shell-shocked parents waiting impatiently for news about their critically-injured son in the Intensive Care Unit. Desperately relieved husbands who've just been told their wife's cancer surgery was a success.

Chances are, you aren't here at the hospital enough to witness the impact of your gifts –  but we are. Our offices are located in the heart of the hospital, and every day we have the honour of observing some of life's most powerful moments – moments when it's about so much more than just the equipment that helped save their lives. Moments that donors like you helped make possible.

Read on to hear from just a few of the people you helped when you made your gift.

Gary Dalliday,
patient and annual donor

Expert care helps local sportscaster get back in the game

More than 15,000 surgeries are performed at PRHC every year. Last spring, Gary Dalliday was one of them. Now, he can't say enough about the people who cared for him, and the incredible impact that donors have on patients' lives.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan. After 33 years in television and radio, sportscaster Gary Dalliday was ready to retire. Although he would miss his friends and colleagues, he was already thinking about the extra time he'd have to spend with his wife, children and grandchildren or with friends on the golf course.

With his last day at work just around the corner, however, Gary received some terrible news. He had cancer.

"I'm sure you can imagine how shocked I was to find out that instead of retiring I'd be fighting cancer,” says Gary. "After all, I'd always taken pretty good care of myself. I thought I was healthy. What I quickly realized is that it doesn't matter how healthy you are. Cancer doesn't care.”

It all started innocently enough. For several months Gary had been experiencing difficulty urinating. In the beginning, he wrote his problem off as a sign of aging and didn't think very much about it.

"Then one night at a hockey game in Sarnia things took a turn for the worse,” Gary remembers. "I felt terrible and kept having to use the bathroom. Then later in my hotel room, I found myself looking into a toilet bowl that was full of blood.”

Gary says that everything happened so quickly after that, it's all just a blur now. One minute he was sitting in his surgeon's office being told he had a large tumour on his bladder. The next he was being prepped for life-saving surgery.

"I won't lie, I was nervous,” says Gary. "I wasn't scared so much of dying but of what I'd leave behind – my family, my friends – my life.”

Two years later and the doctors have told Gary that everything looks good. He's officially retired but he hasn't stopped. You can still hear him commentating for the Petes or find him on the golf course with his buddies.

Looking back Gary gives credit to not only the doctors and nurses who treated him, but the PRHC Foundation donors who he believes helped save his life.

"I'm alive to day to tell my story because my surgeon Dr. Meade had the tools he needed in the operating room – tools that donors helped pay for,” says Gary. "That's why I support the Foundation. So the next time someone like me needs help, PRHC's doctors and nurses will have the tools they need to save someone else's life.”

Yes! I want to make a difference in the lives of patients.

The McLears - Gwen, Rowan, Gavin and Jessica

State-of-the-art diagnostic imaging and expert emergency care prove instrumental in saving toddler's life

Jessica and Gavin McLear had been coming to the lake for years but had never given the Peterborough hospital much thought. That changed the day two-year-old Rowan fell down a flight of stairs and was critically injured. Without warning, PRHC became the centre of their universe.

"It all happened in the blink of an eye.”

That's how Jessica McLear remembers the day her two-year-old fell down the stairs at her parents' cottage.

"One moment Rowan was playing quietly and the next he was laying there with a fractured skull,” says Jessica.

The accident occurred on a sunny summer day during Jessica and Gavin McLear‘s annual visit to Stony Lake with their two children. Because Rowan was an active toddler at the time, his grandparents had installed safety gates on the stairs. Unfortunately, their efforts weren't enough to prevent every parent's worst nightmare.

In a state of panic, Jessica and Gavin rushed Rowan to the Emergency Department at PRHC where he was treated immediately. After the ER trauma team stabilized his critical condition, he was eventually transferred to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. But PRHC's role in saving Rowan's life wasn't over yet.

"When Rowan's condition suddenly and inexplicably deteriorated, an earlier CT scan taken at PRHC proved crucial because it showed a breach in the membrane of his brain that couldn't be found in any scans taken afterwards,” says Jessica.

Thankfully, Rowan made a full recovery, but his story is a reminder that serious accidents can happen at any time. Your support helps fund urgent care equipment that saves the lives of patients like Rowan. He's the reason we need your support. Please give generously today.

Yes! I want to make a difference in the lives of patients.

Susan & Mark Salusbury,
Legacy Donors

(Mark's workshop where he continues to pursue his craft as a wood-turner)

Life-saving care and compassion inspire Cavan couple to give

When Mark Salusbury said ‘goodbye' to his wife Susan and headed out on the highway one beautiful October morning, little did either of them know that disaster was only minutes away.

Just a few miles from his Cavan home, an oncoming vehicle turned left in front of Mark and they collided. Emergency workers arrived on the scene and rushed him to PRHC. They weren't sure he would survive.

After receiving life-saving care in PRHC's Emergency Department, Mark was transported to a trauma centre for extensive surgery. Two and a half weeks later, he was sent back to PRHC to continue his treatment.

Reflecting on the care he received at PRHC both in the ER and during his convalescence, Mark and Susan agree it was second to none.

"A few months later I went for an X-ray and met a technologist who had seen me during those first hours,” says Mark. "With tears in her eyes she told me that they had been very worried that I wouldn't make it. It was obvious that she was genuinely thrilled to see that I survived. I've never forgotten it because it struck me so strongly that this is not ‘just a job' for them. These are people that really care.”

It was the staff's dedication to their patients that inspired Mark and Susan to become supporters of the hospital. After meeting with their lawyer, the couple decided to leave a bequest to the PRHC Foundation in their Will.

"Waiting in the ER after Mark's collision, it was like the future ceased to exist” say Susan. "Everything in your life, every plan you've made or dream you've had, suddenly evaporates and all that's left is a question mark. The doctors and staff at PRHC gave us a future. A hospital may be a building made of bricks and mortar but really, it's full of people and those people make all the difference. Planning a legacy gift for the PRHC Foundation is our way of saying thank you.”

Mark says it's also about making sure PRHC's medical professionals have the right equipment to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

"If you give someone the tools to do their work well, not only will it help them be happy and satisfied at the end of the day, hopefully they'll look forward to coming back tomorrow,” he says. "Giving the PRHC Foundation a gift somewhere down the line will let them know that not only do we appreciate them now, we plan to support them in the future.”

Yes! I want to make a difference in the lives of patients.

Anonymous gift helps save the life of a critically-ill patient in the ICU

We tell our donors all the time - your gifts save lives. Donations to the PRHC Foundation support the medical equipment needed to provide life-saving care.

In March 2010, an anonymous gift enabled the purchase of a piece of equipment that began saving the life of a critically-ill patient the moment it was delivered to the hospital.

According to Denise Freeburn, Manager of PRHC's Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a patient was brought to the unit in need of immediate dialysis. That's when they discovered that the ICU's only portable dialysis machine was already in use and both patients were far too ill to be moved to the dialysis unit.

Thanks to a donor, however, the PRHC Foundation was able to purchase a second portable dialysis machine (also known as a Continuous Renal Therapy machine) for the ICU, allowing the second critically-ill patient to receive the life-saving care he needed.

Denise explains that when it comes to life-saving therapy, it is essential to have more than one piece of equipment. If it weren't for this donor's generosity, the patient may not have survived.

This is the power of giving. On behalf of our patients and staff, thank you to all our donors for your continued support.

Yes! I want to make a difference in the lives of patients.