Ericsson’s involvement in CN Cycle for CHEO runs deep
The reasons for Ericsson’s involvement in CN Cycle for CHEO are many, but at the heart of it is a corporate culture dedicated to giving back to the communities in which they live and work. Ericsson is truly a leader in their field of telecommunications and connecting people wherever they may be. Here in Ottawa, Ericsson is also a leader in fundraising for oncology care at CHEO — $193,000 to date.
Many of Ericsson’s employees have been touched by CHEO for various reasons. For Sean and Joanne Walsh, their familiarity with CHEO began in May 2012 when their beautiful little girl Jessica was born. Shortly after arriving home it became apparent that she was having trouble feeding and was lethargic. This was something the Walsh’s were familiar with, since their firstborn son Jake also had some initial difficulty with feeding when he was born. “We went to a lactation consultant for help and we were told we should go to CHEO,” says Joanne.
At CHEO’s Emergency room many doctors examined Jessica. When a cause wasn’t immediately evident, Sean and Joanne got nervous. “It was emotional for us,” remembers Sean. “We had never needed CHEO to this point in our lives and of course you can’t help but think the worst when hours go by and we still didn’t know what was wrong.” Then a doctor took a closer look in Jessica’s mouth and a diagnosis was made — cleft palate. A cleft palate is a split or opening in the roof of the mouth and can involve the hard palate (the bony front portion of the roof of the mouth), and/or the soft palate (the soft back portion of the roof of the mouth).
For Jessica, the soft palate was the only portion of her mouth affected, which is why it was difficult to find immediately. That’s when Sue Hunt entered their lives. She is the nurse coordinator of the cleft lip, cleft palate and craniofacial team. Sue helped to coordinate the many appointments Jessica would need. Jessica had a team of specialists to help her in her surgery and recovery for which her parents are extremely grateful.
For the first nine months of Jessica’s life, she was bottle fed with special bottles. Surgery for cleft palates cannot take place until an infant is weaned from the specialized bottle to a cup. A child is not allowed to suck on a bottle postsurgery. In February 2013, Jessica had her soft palate repaired.
“The surgery was only an hourand-a-half, but it was the first time my wife and I weren’t caring for her,” says Sean. “It was the longest hour-and-a-half of our lives.”
In true Jessica style, she sailed through surgery and was in good spirits post-operation. “Jessica was named the party girl on the unit because she was awake all night,” says Joanne with a laugh. Once home, she needed splints on her arms so she couldn’t poke at the stitches in her mouth. This was a challenge, but her parents say one they could handle.
“When you walk through the doors at CHEO, you get perspective,” says Sean. “While what we went through was emotional at the time, we know that we were lucky our daughter had something that was fixable.” Jessica has had visits with speech therapy, dentistry, ENT (ears, nose, and throat) for tubes in her ears, and plastic surgery, but she has healed wonderfully and has had no other problems that are often associated with a cleft palate.
“The entire team was amazing,” says Joanne. “Sue Hunt deserves a medal. She was so genuine and caring and helped us so much through all of our various appointments.” Sean adds, “Dr. Ying — her surgeon, Dr. Bromwich — her ENT, and just everyone along the way have been so wonderful to us.” Thanks to CHEO, Jessica is able to sing, dance and tell jokes and be the social butterfly she was meant to be.
The motivation for the Walsh family to give to CHEO is a personal one and for Sean it goes deeper still. Many of his co-workers have CHEO stories to tell, but when Sean’s manager in 2004 lost his child to cancer it struck a cord. “I donate every year in honour of his daughter,” says Sean. “I was 24 years old when I started working at Ericsson and I didn’t really know what CHEO was. Now my wife and I are grateful to have this hospital here in our city.”
Ericsson’s Viking Voyageurs will once again participate in the Ericsson 70K Cycle on event day. To join them or to make a pledge please visit cncycle.ca.