Kids’ hospital marks 10 years as early patient stars in Rio
Young patient’s mom recalls anxious moments in ’06 move to new facility
Zak Madell was critical. All of the patients in the children’s hospital on Sept. 27, 2006, were in serious condition. Those able to go home had gone, as the hospital prepared to move across the city.
Twelve-year-old Zak was battling a dangerous infection related to the septic shock he’d faced two years earlier.
That earlier stay had lasted six months, and over time he lost his fingers and lower legs as doctors fought to save his life.
Seriously ill again, and with his worried mom, Wendy, at his side, Zak was bundled up for the ambulance ride across town.
“The people who work in this hospital took a boy with no pulse, with no blood pressure, not expected to make it, and they made him well and made him smile,” she said that day. “The people organizing this move are people I trust with my son’s life.”
Roads were blocked to reduce traffic and every ambulance that made the 10-minute, 23-second journey up Crowchild Trail had a police escort. Hospital staff recall the waves of sirens indicating another child had arrived, with their parents following in a Shriners’ bus. It took 4.5 hours for the 40 paramedics and EMTs to safely move all 51 children.
“It was amazing how the whole city came together. People were honking and waving at us. That was really cool,” said Linda Day, a veteran nurse of 28 years who helped transport three patients that day, including Zak.
Over the years, Zak had to return many times to the Alberta Children’s Hospital and the care he received there — from surgeries to pain management and therapy — helped him become a world-class athlete.
Now 22, the Okotoks man was a leading scorer for Canada’s wheelchair rugby team at the recent Rio Paralympics. He also has a silver medal from the 2012 London Paralympics.
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am that this little boy who was so sick and wasn’t expected to survive is still with us and thriving,” said his mom.
“The amazing staff ... now have the facility they need to do what they do best, save children’s lives.”
The $253-million hospital — Canada’s first new pediatric hospital in two decades — opened more than 80 years after the Red Cross established the first medical facility for children in 1922 in a house on 18th Avenue S.W. It moved to a renovated apartment on 20th Avenue four years later and, in 1952, government grants helped build two wings on Richmond Road at 17th Avenue S.W.
It remained there for 54 years until age and size dictated the need for a new one.
“It was a really awful building. We used to have two to four patients per room and not a lot of windows, if any. I remember climbing over parents’ cots in the crowded rooms trying to check patients and equipment,” said Day.
“It was so stressful for them. With four in a room, no one is sleeping.”
Madell said the drastic change from a windowless room to a wallto-wall view of the river valley and mountains was incredibly therapeutic for both her and her son.
“I never left the hospital for six months. They gave us the best room they had but it had no window. I never knew if it was day or night.
“For Zak, (the move) was so healing. If you can’t do much else, if you can see the beauty of nature, the sunshine, the birds, that’s so important.”
Nicknamed the Lego Hospital, the new children’s hospital was designed with significant input from
It was amazing how the whole city came together. People were honking and waving at us. That was really cool.
patients. The original concept of a multi-storey brick building evolved into something resembling colourful toy building blocks when the renderings were shown to the hospital’s Teen Advisory Group.
The 900,000-square-foot facility was also designed with comfort in mind.
Additions included parent sleeping facilities in patient rooms, a child-care centre where siblings could be dropped off, a pet therapy room and six exterior gardens.
The under-two cardiac and respiratory unit has all private rooms with windows and bathrooms.
“No matter what, coming into hospital is a scary and traumatic situation, but being bright and cheery makes it easier for children,” said Day.
One of the many improvements of the new hospital was a significant increase in ER capacity.
The previous emergency department was built to handle 25,000 patients per year, while the new one can accommodate 60,000.
Last year, it was pushed beyond capacity with 76,894 patient visits.
With almost 3,500 staff, the hospital cares for patients from birth up to 18 from southern Alberta, southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Saskatchewan.
It is the provincial centre for bone marrow transplantation, and is the leader in Western Canada for pediatric neurosciences.
It also is the only pediatric hospital in Canada with a comprehensive behavioural unit, is a world leader in congenital cataracts surgery and has the largest pediatric vision clinic in Western Canada.