Good health, either for ourselves or our loved-ones is the most precious gift that we can ever hope to be blessed with. As the Christmas season approaches we often take stock of the graces that have been given to us and the good fortune we have experienced during the past year. As we look back on 2012 and give thanks for being able to fully participate in family and community life, we look forward to what the future holds and think about the positive ways we can influence and shape the people and events, we hold so dear.
This campaign represents a very special opportunity for people like you to make a positive contribution to the future of our community’s healthcare by helpingHôtel-DieuGraceHospitalmeet the complex needs of our patients. We need your support to ensure that we can continue to be this region’s premier tertiary acute care hospital and provide our patients with leading-edge medical and diagnostic equipment, pioneering medical services and surgical programs, as well as the highly-skilled health professionals to care for the sick and injured.
In recognition of your generous donation, we will decorate our majestic tree with an ornament on behalf of a remarkable person who has had a significant impact on your life. We will also send you an ornament to decorate your tree and honour this person of significance in your own home. Most importantly, your generous support will contribute to the health and care of our patients. Patients like award-winning journalist, author and educator Veronique Mandel. Veronique can continue to share her many gifts with her husband, family and students because of Hôtel-Dieu Grace and the skilled clinicians who saved her life.
As a health reporter, I have written hundreds of stories aboutCanada's health care system - some were laudatory, many showed its shortcomings and failures. This story, however, is personal. This is a very public thank you to the doctors, nurses, admitting and technical staff atHotel-DieuGraceHospitalwho all played a role in saving my life, this past April.
I do not say this lightly because being rescued from the brink of death is a profoundly life-changing experience. And, as a nurse, I now know I survived only because of the extraordinary care providers at Hôtel-Dieu Grace. I was able to see up close and personal how the system can work when a life is on the line. It started with my much cherished family physician, Dr. Roxanna Chow, who wasted no time in ordering me toHôtel-DieuGraceHospital’s Level I Emergency Department and Trauma Centre.
I was quickly triaged and seen by Dr. Sophia Thomas and the nurses in ER who gave me both skilled and caring attention. My condition was critical and I was admitted to the ICU and placed under the care of a tremendously inspired team who knew my precarious state of health but kept me calm with their positive attitudes and incomparable medical attention.
When my condition stabilized I was transferred to the seventh floor where I could not have received better nursing care. I get emotional as I think back to that time because a simple thank you seems so inadequate to express my gratitude to Dr. Earle Morgan, the GI specialist and caregivers who are responsible for me being alive today. Their medical skills and knowledge, encouraging words and compassionate demeanour, instilled a confidence in me and I knew I was in good hands. They are my heroes.
I feel very blessed this Christmas and thank God for Hôtel-Dieu Grace and for my wonderful family, friends and colleagues.
We hope that you were touched by Veronique’s compelling care journey and will support our annual Tree of Lights Campaign. Your gift will help Hôtel-Dieu Grace continue toprovide this community with leading-edge medical programs by supporting the capital needs of the hospital, so that we can care for our family and loved ones, right here in Windsor-Essex. Please join us in commemorating the holiday season by supporting the modern medical miracles that save the lives of people like Veronique.
For more information about this appeal, please contact 519-973-4443
(Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable tax receipt)