Heroes on the front lines: The respiratory therapist
“If you can’t breathe, you can’t do anything.”
Respiratory Therapist (RT) Dave Sahadeo has been working at VGH since 2017, helping patients who require respiratory aid to receive vital and life-saving care. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Metro Vancouver in March, it was unlike anything he had seen before.
“COVID-19 has significantly impacted my work and my life,” says Dave. “We have to wear full PPE for any COVID-positive or suspected patients. This makes it difficult to communicate between the patient and the staff as voices are muffled, and often the door is closed so you are either shouting through a glass door or trying to use a Walkie-Talkie.”
Then there’s the equipment. Any item that enters into a patient’s room that is not a hard wipeable surface or covered in plastic wrap gets disposed of because of the high risk of contamination.
This forces Dave and his fellow RT’s to be strategic about what they bring into a room to preserve supplies and reduce waste.
It’s a lot of work to care for a single patient, but this is why he chose his career – to literally help people keep breathing. Even at the cost of seeing his own family.
Personal sacrifice, for us
“I told my family goodbye several weeks ago when our first COVID-19 case popped up,” says Dave. “Many of my colleagues have self-isolated from their families as well. We all remain dedicated to providing the best patient care that we can, but it takes a huge toll and sacrifice in our personal lives to be there on the front lines for our patients.”
World-class, coordinated care is saving lives
After just 24 hours, Dr. Sekhon and Dr. Wellington have analyzed markers in the patient’s blood and characterized his immune system. This information provided to his medical team – Dr. Don Griesdale, Dana Fedor and Dave Sahadeo – is vital, allowing them to provide personalized care.
Within a few hours of initial treatment, his system begins to rebound. After only a few days, he is officially released from ICU. And just a few weeks later, he has fully recovered.
“Every patient we save from this pandemic is worth this herculean effort,” says Dr. Griesdale. “When we received our first COVID-infected patient, it was a fearful time. But every day at VGH we are learning more, and through research and expert care, we will find the answers to beat this disease.”
Thank you for your support
As quickly as all our lives changed when COVID-19 arrived in BC, so did our community’s response.
Thank you to all those who have supported the Foundation’s COVID-19 fundraising efforts. Your gifts support our health care teams on the front lines to provide the best possible care, and ensure our researchers are able to continue to mobilize with others from around the world to treat and cure COVID-19. Continue reading.
“Looking back on these past weeks, I can honestly say this has been one of my most difficult times in my 12 years working as a nurse,” says Dana Fedor, ICU nurse at VGH. “I have experienced every emotion humanly possible: fear, sadness, anger, pride, love. I have worked late and arrived home physically and mentally exhausted.”
But, despite it all, Dana can honestly say there is nowhere she would rather be than on the front lines against COVID-19, helping patients at their most vulnerable.
“Some of the sickest patients will be in the main COVID Unit receiving continuous renal repairment therapy,” says Dana. “This is dialysis that is ongoing. But the main concern is generally the lungs.”
Using every tool at their disposal
Many patients are intubated and connected to a ventilator. Many go into renal failure, and if they have pre-existing kidney problems those chances are increased.
There’s also a lot of equipment in a patient’s room: ventilator, dialysis machines as needed, a number of IV pumps. Nurses are getting creative in optimizing how often they need to enter a patient’s room by using extension tubing to keep IV pumps outside the room instead, saving time and precious PPE.
“One of our nurses researched using extension tubing to keep pumps outside the patient’s room to limit exposure,” says Dana. “A number of these sick patients are under a lot of infusions. So that’s a great idea to keep the IV pumps safely outside of the room.”
Reaching a last resort
While the COVID-19 infected patient awaits the results of the testing being conducted at Dr. Wellington’s lab, he faces the reality that the disease is continuing to damage his system.
His breathing has become increasingly labored. He can barely pull in enough oxygen on his own. He needs breathing support – now.
The ICU nurses bring in the Respiratory Therapists – the experts who help treat every COVID-19 patient at VGH in respiratory distress.
The patient has read the news. He knows about the ventilators being used as a “last resort” to ensure breathing continues. After this, he doesn’t know if there are any other options.
He is intubated and given the oxygen his body needs to carry on this fight. What he doesn’t know yet is that his results have just been received from the lab. And this information will turn the tide. Continue reading.
“In the ICU, patients are primarily taken care of by a multidisciplinary team which consists of: nurses, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, dieticians, pharmacists and occupational therapists, and I’m sure I’m forgetting someone,” says Dr. Donald Griesdale, ICU physician at VGH. “And don’t forget there are the huge number of support staff — cleaners, people to stock equipment, radiology technicians, biomedical engineering, facilities, maintenance and operations. Everyone is part of the care team.”
Treating a COVID patient is all about the details for Dr. Griesdale – every staff interaction requires full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including a face shield, N95 mask, gown and gloves.
But the toughest part, according to Dr. Griesdale, is limiting a patient’s interaction with their loved ones.
“Families aren’t able to be in our critical care COVID Unit, which is really hard on both the patient and the family,” explains Dr. Griesdale.
Seeing this unusual divide between patients and their loved ones truly highlights the importance of family engagement in a patient’s care.
“We are using technology to help, like FaceTime, but I’m hoping we can continue to improve on getting families back as part of the care team,” says Dr. Griesdale.
Fighting onward
At the end of the day, when his patients are set and cared for, Dr. Griesdale feels tired, but his motivation is unwavering. He’s pulling in extra hours to ensure those who need it are cared for. This is what he knows he needs to do in in the midst of an unprecedented battle.
“This pandemic has taken its toll, but we’re fighting through it together,” says Dr. Griesdale.
The infection grows worse
The COVID-19 patient’s condition continues to deteriorate. He is under round-the-clock, world-class care, yet the infection is still impacting his body.
But Dr. Griesdale’s colleagues, Dr. Myp Sekhon and Cheryl Wellington, PhD, have an idea. They take a sample of the patient’s blood and bring it to be analyzed at Dr. Wellington’s donor-funded lab at UBC. Their research could be the answer to saving this patient’s life.
In the meantime,the patient remains in ICU under the expert hands of Dana Fedor, an ICU nurse working to help COVID infected patients at VGH. Continue reading.
‘Legendary’ Jim O’Hara retires after decades of health care transformation
Rare in every respect, a legend to his peers and those who had the pleasure to work with him, Jim O’Hara has retired after 23 remarkable years with VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.
Jim’s work has truly embodied the heart of the Foundation’s values – to transform health care, inspire donors, and save lives. And it is safe to say Jim has lived and breathed these values tenfold.
“How happy I am that I have known Jim O’Hara and that our paths have crossed,” says Angela Chapman, President & CEO of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. “As Jim retires, he leaves a new generation of fundraising professionals who have been inspired by him and will carry on his legacy of building life-long bonds with physicians and with donors. His legacy continues through the transformative gifts and projects which he helped inspire, among them and so impactful is the Joseph & Rosalie Segal & Family Health Centre. As impactful as those gifts have been, and will continue to be, on our Foundation’s beneficiaries, the chief amongst his achievements and his chief legacy will be the Art Program.”
Jim co-founded the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation Art Program in 1998 with Roberta Beiser, working off the side of his desk – or rather under it in “stealth” as he put it. What started as an idea to bring colour to grey hospital walls in an effort to humanize clinical spaces has grown into one of the largest hospital art collections in North America, boasting more than 2,400 pieces spread across Vancouver Coastal Health campuses.
“Joining hands with a dedicated corps of community and arts leaders, the collection he leaves behind surpasses more than 2,400 pieces that humanize, inspire and beautify the spaces at VGH, UBC Hospital, GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre and across several sites of Vancouver Community Health,” says Angela. “Thousand and thousands of patients, clients, families, employees and visitors will have the benefit this Art Program will bring, now and for generations to come. Thank you, Jim O’Hara: my life is richer for knowing you.”
Jim started his career in fundraising in 1994, helping secure major gifts in education before joining VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation in 1997. He has been a senior member of the team for more than two decades and is responsible for raising hundreds of millions in major gifts for health care, amongst them, two of the largest personal health care gifts in Canada at $20 million dollars each – one from Jim Pattison and another from Gordon and Leslie Diamond.
Jim has received awards for the Canada 125 Medal and the Order of the Cote D’Ivoire, and in 2013 was named Outstanding Fundraising Professional by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. He has been a board member of several community initiatives including the Whistler Forum, the Canadian Club, Leadership Vancouver and Vancouver Art Gallery. He was the Honorary Consul for the Cote D’Ivoire for 10 years.
In celebration of Jim’s retirement, we invite you to donate to ensure the continuation of Jim’s most impactful legacy – theVGH & UBC Hospital Foundation Art Program.
‘IDEA Art Award’ winner announced, artwork to promote healing at Vancouver General Hospital
VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation is pleased to announce artist Russna Kaur as the winner of the 10th annual IDEA Art Award, a cash prize bestowed by benefactors Dr. Ian Penn and Dr. Sandy Whitehouse Penn, with the winning artwork gifted to the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation Art Collection.
With the support of the IDEA Award, Kaur has created a dynamic new work for the lobby of the Gordon & Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre.
“Art humanizes clinical spaces and expedites the healing process,” says Jim O’Hara, Art Program Co-founder and Vice President, Leadership Giving, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. “Russna Kaur is a brilliant and talented young artist, and we are proud to have her work on site to promote healing inside the Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre at VGH.”
Russna Kaur holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo (2013) and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2019). In her paintings, drawings, collages and assemblages, Kaur evokes spatial and figurative illusions with a visual intensity that parallels her interest in secular and religious spectacles of celebration, mourning and consumption.
“I am interested in exploring how the surface of a painting can reveal a narrative and ways in which, through the process of painting and use of materials, I can address complex personal and cultural histories,” says Kaur.
Established in 2009 by Dr. Ian Penn (BFA 2010) and Dr. Sandy Whitehouse Penn, the IDEA Art Award was created to link the world of visual art with that of health care. By presenting an annual award to an emerging artist, the IDEA Art Award provides a platform for artistic experimentation and encourages critical discourse around the intersection of art and healing. Under the leadership of Jim O’Hara, the award recipients have partnered with the Foundation to have their works displayed across VCH sites.
The VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation Art Collection was launched in 1998 to bring visual art into our hospitals to create a warmer space for Vancouver Coastal Health’s clinical settings. Today, more than 2 400 pieces by notable artists grace the walls of our hospitals, all donated by local artists and collectors.
Today, four major charities in British Columbia have joined forces to establish the B.C. COVID-19 Combat Collective to raise funds for the province’s world-leading research teams. The charities include: BCCDC Foundation for Public Health, BC Cancer Foundation, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation and the University of British Columbia. Funds raised will support B.C.’s leading experts who are on the global stage in researching innovative solutions to detect, neutralize and combat COVID-19.
In the face of crisis, research is the key to curb the current threat and understand COVID-19’s long-term implications, protecting us from future risks.
Leaders have been assembled from various specialities including basic science, public health, innovative testing and treatment development to join the B.C. COVID-19 Combat Collective.
Together, this powerhouse of scientific experts can help prevent future outbreaks and save the lives of our most vulnerable. Breakthroughs in B.C. will benefit British Columbians first with rapid sharing around the world. They will tackle the virus from every angle, focusing on one outcome: combat COVID-19 and take back tomorrow.
Donor funding will support a range of promising research projects currently underway in B.C., including:
BCCDC FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health experts at the BCCDC are leading new population health research in a provincial effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by evaluating the public health response and assessing susceptibility and immunity of B.C.’s general population. This research will enable experts to develop rapid-response public health measures, including testing and risk mitigation for vulnerable populations, to prepare for subsequent waves of the virus and to strengthen readiness for future pandemics.
“I’m proud to represent the BC COVID-19 Combat Collective, an innovative collaboration that elevates the role that philanthropy can play in driving vital COVID-19 prevention, testing, and treatment research across BC. Among the four partners, the BCCDC’s prevention research will shape the public health response, ensuring we can prevent transmission, gather evidence about infection in the general population, and prepare for future waves and outbreaks. This project and the other critical research efforts to enhance testing and treatments, as well as the commitment between these dedicated charities and donors, will help experts save lives. This collective demonstrates the need for collaboration and amplifies our continued commitment to address COVID-19 together.”
– Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, Government of B.C.
BC CANCER FOUNDATION
BC Cancer experts are working to combat COVID-19 by decoding the disease and developing innovative testing and treatments, including a study that applies the team’s expertise in cancer detection to rapidly test for coronavirus by using four innovative technologies. This includes light and breath samples.
“Combating COVID-19 is essential for all of us, especially our vulnerable cancer population. World-leading researchers at BC Cancer are deploying expertise in genomics, disease detection and treatment development to accelerate innovative solutions alongside our provincial colleagues to halt the spread.”
– Francois Benard, senior executive director, research, BC Cancer
VGH & UBC HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
VGH is participating in a national clinical trial called CONCOR-1 to test a possible treatment for COVID-19 using plasma from people who have recovered from the disease. It is expected that the first VGH patients will be treated by the end of the month with this therapy.
“I’m so very proud of the efforts of the public and our frontline public health teams who have helped prevent spread of the virus and flatten the curve here in our region. But as we continue to respond to COVID-19, we know we need to learn much more about this new virus and that’s why support for the COMBAT COVID-19 Collective is so important. Our research experts here can make a significant contribution to prevent deaths, not only here in B.C. but around the world. I’m asking for your support and I want to thank you as we work to take back tomorrow.”
– Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer, Vancouver Coastal Health
UBC
UBC is investing in the infrastructure needed to support the COVID-19 research community, such as a provincial biobank and clinical trial networks, to quickly and effectively translate research from across BC into new treatments and to prepare for future pandemics. UBC’s researchers, who work in labs and clinics across the province, are redirecting their expertise to the search for drugs and treatments that will save the lives of patients suffering with the disease today.
“UBC researchers are prepared to work with our partners across the province to find solutions to the multifaceted issues caused by COVID-19—just like they did in 2003, when UBC led on the development of a vaccine for SARS. As BC’s leading research university, we are uniquely positioned to house crucial infrastructure that can enable and accelerate the critical work being done by our province’s top researchers. We are honoured to work together to combat this virus to defend the health of our citizens and our way of life.”
– Santa J. Ono, president and vice chancellor, University of British Columbia
To combat COVID-19, we need your help today.
Our governments are making unprecedented investments in the fight against COVID-19, but they can’t do it alone. Philanthropy will make the difference in uncovering rapid solutions.
Give today to support B.C.’s leading experts and advance critical research to combat our generation’s worst public health emergency. You can support researchers as they mobilize with others from around the world to find real solutions and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Your donation will play a crucial part in halting the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives in B.C. and around the world.
Life as an ICU nurse at VGH during a pandemic
‘Fighting COVID Together’ – an innovative online charity event
Thank you to those who took part in this unprecedented online charity auction!
The event raised an outstanding $60,000 for the six charities taking part!
COVID-19 continues to be an extraordinary factor in all our lives, from how we work, to managing our personal lives at home. And in the midst of this global pandemic, there has also been a tremendous impact on the non-profit sector, including the Foundation, which would routinely host events as a way to receive vital funding.
The event brings together six charities united for one night for a singular cause – to raise vital funding and raise awareness about what charities supporting front line workers, volunteers and children with special needs are up against during the COVID-19 crisis.
“Fighting COVID Together” will be an upbeat and fast-paced online auction hosted by Howard Blank. Registration is free and must be completed by Friday, May 22 at 4 p.m. in order to qualify for the live auction.
Items up for bid from the Foundation includes packages from Four Winds Brewing Co., White Spot On the Go-Food Truck and Tractor Foods.
As COVID-19 took hold of our old way of life, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation swiftly pivoted to a new normal. We began to look at new ways to support the many independent fundraising events that were planned, and helping transform them into safe, virtual versions instead.
The community has responded with incredibly creative ways to support our COVID-19 Response and Research Funds, including DJ Neky hosting a nightly 7 p.m. fundraising set, Devin Townsend’s Quarantine Concert which helped raised $64,000 towards our COVID-19 efforts, and many more.
Get involved!
If you or someone you know wants to support VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation’s efforts through your own fundraiser, please connect with us and let us know. We will do everything we can to support you in your joint effort to fight back against COVID-19.
VGH and UBC research helping treat patients with COVID-19
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