Hospital’s opening was a new beginning
Many milestones for St. Catharines site opened five years ago
It was a special day for Alexzander Carriere.
The Fort Erie boy got to have some cake and received a shiny new trailer truck, something that would sure to be on any five-yearold boy’s wish list.
Alexzander and his family returned Wednesday to St. Catharines hospital to help celebrate the facility’s fifth anniversary.
“When you open a new hospital, it’s about new beginnings,” said Dr. Johan Viljoen, Niagara Health deputy chief of staff. “And what is more poignant when you talk about new beginnings than babies.”
Just shy of 15,000 babies — including 14 over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend — have been born since the hospital opened its doors on March 24, 2013, or 3,000 annually.
Alexzander was the first baby born at the hospital, where he was presented Wednesday with the gift and, of course, birthday cake.
“Alexzander has a special place here at the hospital,” Viljoen said.
Alexzander’s mom, Ashley McDermott, said she had hoped the hospital would be open by the time her son arrived.
“We were really excited,” she said, adding she was 10 days overdue. “I told my (obstetrician) to try and hold it off and wait. I really wanted the baby to be born in the new hospital.”
After going into labour at 4 a.m. on March 24, she still managed to pack a lunch for her firstborn Domenic so he could go to school before she went to the hospital. Alexzander came into the world at 11:47 a.m., just hours after the hospital opened.
“I’ve had two more since born here,” McDermott said.
But the hospital has brought more to the city than a place for babies to be born, said Niagara Health president Suzanne Johnston.
“(The hospital) has been the catalyst for a number of significant enhancements to patient care,” Johnston said. “It makes a big difference.”
She pointed to Walker Family Cancer Centre as an example, where patients have access to radiation and chemotherapy treatments in Niagara and have not had to travel outside the region — sometimes drives lasting hours — for treatment.
“It’s profound,” she said. “It’s making all the difference for people in their journey.”
Since the centre opened, 3,691 patients have benefited from 64,244 radiation treatments while 4,133 patients have received 54,005 chemotherapy treatments.
“It’s an extraordinary time in Niagara,” Johnston said.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s cardiac care services have meant 8,750 people have access to cardiac catheterization services previously unavailable in Niagara, while 2,012 non-surgical cardiac interventions have also been performed.
Additionally, mental health and addictions services at the hospital have treated 141,392 people through outpatient services and 29,802 emergency crisis and psychiatric emergency visits.
The mental health services meant the difference between life and death for one man.
“It saved my life,” said Michael Kisur of Welland, who had been battling depression for a number of years. “It was very, very dark.”
The musician, who had received a Daytime Emmy Award in 2005 for the song “Sunshine” that was part of an episode of the drama “The Young & the Restless,” found himself not being able to write music or even pick up a guitar.
“It just hit me. I don’t know why,” he said, adding he has had obsessive compulsive disorder his entire life.
He had been a patient at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton and came to St. Catharines when the new hospital opened and spent a year there.
“It made all the difference,” he said.
As a thank you, Kisur, wrote a song called “Hope Lives Here,” which he performed at Wednesday’s event.