Last September medical teams from across Lions Gate Hospital and a team of paramedics came together to take part in an emergency stroke simulation. It was part of an exhaustive year-long effort that has had a dramatic impact on the care that stroke patients receive at LGH.

A volunteer played a 62-year-old woman suffering from left-sided weakness. Two million brain cells die every minute during a stroke and the aim of the life-like training session was to get the patient from admission, to diagnosis to treatment as quickly as possible.

The team aced the session and reduced the time from admission to medication from 60 to 17 minutes. Less than two hours later during a debriefing session a Code 77 (stroke alert) was called on the hospital PA system. It was time for the team to put their training to a very critical test. In a weird case of deja vu, the real, live patient was a 62-year-old woman presenting with weakness on the left side.

With the simulation session still fresh in their minds, the physicians, nurses and paramedics were able to maintain the 17-minute timeline from admission to clot-busting drug. Three days later the patient walked out of LGH hospital with no long-term side effects.

“It was such a powerful moment. I still get goose bumps thinking about it,” says Marieve Legrand, Stroke and TIA Coordinator (Transient Ischemia Attack) for Neurosciences at LGH.

There have been many more similar cases since the stroke collaborative was launched.

Lions Gate Hospital is an Advanced Stroke Centre which has the technology and expertise to provide one of the highest levels of stroke care in the province. Last year 275 people suffering from acute stroke symptoms were treated in Emergency and on the Neurology ward at LGH. And it’s not just patients from the North Shore, people who live in the Sea-to-Sky corridor and Sunshine Coast are brought directly to LGH if a recent stroke is suspected.

Between October 2018 and October 2019 LGH was involved in the province-wide Hyper Acute Stroke Collaborative in an effort to improve survival rates and shorten recovery for stroke patients. Marieve Legrand coordinated the effort at LGH which included medical professionals from Emergency, Medical Imaging, and Neurology.

Time of arrival at Emergency to CT Scan has been reduced by 20 mins and the turn-around time for patients that need to be transferred to a specialist procedure at Vancouver General Hospital has been reduced by 35 minutes.

Education, simulation sessions, and awareness raising were all part of an effort to ensure that all the relevant staff have access to the latest medical research, were given time to develop the most efficient clinical practices and had the opportunity to hone their clinical skills.

Stroke Simulation Training Lions Gate Hospital

Thank you very much to BlueShore Financial for matching gifts totalling $10,000 to our COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. The total was met on Tuesday June 2nd, 2020. Thank you for helping us double our impact – turning $10,000 into $20,000!

The Lions Gate Hospital Foundation has allocated a total of $955,000 from the COVID-19 Fund to the purchase of life-saving equipment including ventilators, respiratory aids, thermometers, and physiological monitors.

Learn more about our response to COVID-19, and get involved today.

A Message from BlueShore Financial

At BlueShore Financial, our North Shore roots run deep with nearly 80 years of serving the community. Now more than ever, we need to band together to protect the health and well-being of our community members. We are proud to evolve our 25 year partnership with Lions Gate Hospital to help the North Shore COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund through the Double Your Impact program.

BlueShore Financial Lions Gate Hospital Matching Donation

North Shore COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund

The North Shore COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund was established in March, 2020, to address the immediate needs of patients and staff impacted by the pandemic. Thanks to the generosity of hundreds of donors, the fund surpassed $2.1 million in June.

One million dollars have been allocated for essential supplies and equipment, including: seven ventilators, thirteen physiological monitors, fifty temporal thermometers, as well as humidifiers, and other respiratory devices.

The outpouring of generosity and support from our community has been life-saving. Thanks to hundreds of donors, volunteers, local businesses and organizations, we have made a significant impact on the North Shore.

Supplies and Equipment

Supplies and equipment donations received to date include: 27,105 N95 masks; 49,561 masks; 14,307 pairs of gloves; 901 pairs of goggles; 849 protective suits; 11,478 face shields; and more than 15 gallons of hand-sanitizer. In addition, 356 grocery gift cards were donated to long-term care facility staff at Cedarview Lodge & Berkley Care Centre.

Feeding the Frontline

Numerous local restaurants opened their hearts and kitchens to provide meals for staff working long shifts. Additionally, many other companies sponsored meals for staff at health care facilities across the North Shore. Food donations included 7,095 meals; 11,521 snacks; 12,882 drinks; and $130,018 in sponsored food related donations. This generosity has made the lives of our frontline health care workers and support staff a little easier during the exceptional times of COVID-19.

Community Support

This influx of support has been shared with the community. Close to 800 hot lunches have been delivered to individuals who live in low-income housing facilities on the North Shore. In addition, 576 gift cards were given to long-term care facility staff.

Rest and Recovery

Thanks to a $100,000 donation from the Djavad Mowafaghian Foundation, accommodation was available for eligible frontline employees. This gift supported employees who were distancing from their families for safety reasons and/or had long commutes to and from home between shifts.

Thank You

Over the past several months our community has come together to support the patients and staff most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Thank you for your support during this time.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 604.984.5785, or via email.

Thank you so much for your support and stay safe.

Lions Gate Hospital is one of 17 Primary COVID care sites in BC and it has undergone some major changes to prepare for an influx of patients requiring critical care during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Integrated Operations Centre, which was opened last fall thanks to a $200,000 donation from the Foundation, is now the Coastal Emergency Operations Centre. It is open 24/7 to coordinate patient intake, logistics and planning.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) now has 5 negative pressure rooms, and a specialized COVID-19 unit with 28 beds has been set up on the second floor. With fewer surgeries taking place, extra capacity has been created in other units throughout the hospital.

The Emergency Department has been re-configured to ensure that visitors are met right at the entrance before admission ensuring that suspected COVID-19 cases are separated from patients dealing with other urgent health issues.

Patients visiting for chemotherapy enter the clinic through a separate, sealed entrance to provide them with extra protection while they receive life-saving treatment.

Patients requiring time-sensitive care are meeting with their health-care providers through video-conferencing.

As the crisis continues, hospital staff will continue to adapt to ensure that all critical cases, whatever the cause, can receive the treatment they need when they need it.

This contest is now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry! We loved seeing the colourful designs. The winners (picked at random) are: Aiden (age 0-5), Ben (age 6-8), and Bella (age 9-12).

Check out the gallery of entries received here.

The support we’ve received from the kids in our community has been heartwarming.

We see the hearts in your windows, the painted rocks around town, and the gorgeous art you’ve shared with us.

To celebrate, we’re hosting Seymour the Lion’s Helping Hands Colouring Contest for kids aged 0-12. We will be giving away a total of three Seymour Stuffies based on the age group of the artist; ages 0-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

We invite your kiddos to do their part to help flatten the curve by completing the helping hands colouring challenge. Once your child has completed a helping action, they colour in the badge next to it.

Encourage your kids get creative with their crayons, and they could win a Seymour the Lion Stuffy!

To Participate:

Print out our Helping Hands colouring sheet and colour it! Download the colouring sheet here.

Fill out your young artist’s name and age at the bottom of the sheet.

Once completed, take a photo and post it on our Facebook wall (or your own wall, but your account will need to be public for us to see it) or on Instagram and tag @LGHFoundation.

A winner will be selected on Friday April 24th and your Seymour the Lion will be mailed to you.

The Fine Print:

By joining the contest, you consent for your child’s artwork to be shared on our website and social media channels.

The Seymour the Lion’s Helping Hands Colouring Contest begins on Monday April 6th, 2020, and closes Friday April 24th, 2020.

Lions Gate Hospital Foundation Colouring Contest

Thank you very much to the Gulshan & Pyarali G. Nanji Family Foundation for matching gifts totalling $100,000 to our COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. The total was met on Thursday April 9th, 2020. Thank you for helping us double our impact – turning $100,000 into $200,000!

Pyarali and Gulshan Nanji and their family of four children were among the thousands of Ugandans of Indian descent exiled from the country in the 1970s.

They were airlifted to Canada and initially lived in Montreal where they had to start their lives from scratch.

Thankful for the safe refuge given to their family, Pyarali and Gulshan made a pledge to give back to the country that gave them safe haven.

In 1991 Pyarali Nanji founded Belle-Pak Packaging Inc and today the company employs 200 people and supplies products for companies across North America.

The couple never forgot their promise, and over the years, they have donated millions of dollars to Canadian charities and health care facilities.

The $100,000 pledge to the North Shore COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund is the Gulshan & Pyarali G. Nanji Family Foundation’s largest donation to date to LGH Foundation.

We have been working closely with the Lions Gate Hospital Emergency Operations Centre to coordinate hundreds of donations of supplies and equipment.

Thanks to the exceptional generosity of our community, we have reached our target for donated supplies. However, the situation changes daily, so if you have supplies you wish to donate to LGH, please contact us at info@localhost with details of the item and quantity. We will be in touch if the need for your item arises.

Alternatively, the British Columbia government is accepting donations directly here.

Please note at this time we are unable to accept donations of handmade items and services.

For Gift in Kind tax information, please review this Information Sheet.

If you are a restaurant owner and would like to donate food for the staff at Lions Gate Hospital, please read our food donation guidelines.

Thank you so much for your support.

Donating N95 Masks to Lions Gate Hospital Thanks to Elisa Wei who delivered several boxes of N95 masks collected by a group of friends to Lions Gate Hospital.

Dear Friends & Supporters,

COVID-19 is a unique challenge for us all. Many of you have reached out to LGH Foundation over the past few days in response to the news of the five LGH administrative staff who tested positive.

Thank-you for your heartfelt concern. Foundation staff are not among these people. The impacted individuals work in a separate office from the Foundation and are now at their respective homes in isolation. We wish them all the best at this difficult time.

We are following the advice of our health officials to play our part in slowing down the transmission of COVID-19. Our offices are now closed to visitors with the majority of Foundation staff working from home. Although we are working in different locations we remain available to answer your questions and we will continue to reply to your emails and voice messages in a timely manner. We ask for your patience as there may be delays in tax receipting and general correspondence.

We offer our sincere gratitude to frontline staff at LGH for their selflessness and dedication to keeping our community safe and well.

All scheduled meetings to be held at LGH are cancelled until further notice.

During these challenging circumstances, we are committed to working closely with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to ensure that our medical teams and patients have the resources and the support they need to work through this crisis. For this reason, we have launched the North Shore COVID-19 Emergency Fund.

The COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund was launched with dozens of donations ranging from $40 to $250,000. Two significant donations of $50,000 each were made by Bruce and Diana Chan and an anonymous North Shore family. Their gifts were followed by a generous pledge of $250,000 from Paul Myers, a renowned North Shore philanthropist and long-time friend of Lions Gate Hospital. I would be grateful for any contribution you might consider. Should you wish to make a donation, please consider making your gift online to ensure its timely receipt.

Most importantly, we need to look out for one another and to keep our community safe. For information on how to protect you and your loved ones during the COVID-19 outbreak, please go to: www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19. You can check our social media channels for general updates and information regarding Lions Gate Hospital.

Thank you for your support. Stay safe and please reach contact us if you have any questions at info@localhost.

         

Judy Savage President and CEO Lions Gate Hospital Foundation

 
Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and Amica Helping Hands Foundation have teamed up to help support local seniors in need. Amica Helping Hands Charity has committed $250,000 to the Amica Compassionate Fund which will enable frontline community care workers to cover the cost of essential items that will improve the quality of life for seniors who are receiving medical treatment and enable them to stay in their homes. Frontline staff in North and West Vancouver make more than 38,000 visits a year and many of the people they support are seniors living in poverty. “It is an unfortunate fact that more seniors are facing homelessness and more are now receiving community based health services in the local shelter on the North Shore,” says Sandra Edelman, Manager of Public Health, Chronic Disease Services, Primary Care on the North Shore. “Those seniors who face the painful daily reality of having insufficient funds to support themselves present difficult challenges for health care providers. When basic needs are unmet, which are foundational for their recovery and health, the work of the providers is compromised.” Money from the fund can be used for a range of supports including food, cleaning services, prescriptions, pest control, and emergency transport to help out seniors just when they need it most. Rich Lawrie, a social worker on the North Shore who once had a client who sold her wedding ring to make ends meet, says the fund is already having a significant impact on the quality of life of his clients. “I have been using this fund for a couple of months and it is amazing. As a social worker it’s a dream come true,” he says. “I love this fund because it’s like spackle – it covers many of the cracks in the social safety net.” Amica Senior Lifestyles established the Amica Helping Hands Charity to support Canadian seniors in need by providing them with the goods, funds and services they need to thrive. Residents from Amica Lions Gate, Amica Edgemont Village, and Amica West Vancouver were involved in raising funds for the Compassionate Fund which will be available for at least the next five years.

Congratulations to the five recipients of the 13th Annual North Shore Health Care Awards held at Lions Gate Hospital on Wednesday, January 22. Healthcare staff from across the North Shore attended the ceremony to celebrate and support more than 40 staff members who had won the respect and admiration of their colleagues.

Introducing the 2019 Recipients

Click this photo to view more images from the event.
Natalie Wilhelm, Workplace Inspiration

Natalie Wilhelm, who received the award for Workplace Inspiration was nominated by eight different people. Natalie has been a nurse for more than 25 years and she has been a mentor and inspiration to colleagues throughout her career on the North Shore. She worked across many disciplines including urology, ENT and general surgery before moving into community nursing. Through a lot of hard work and determination, Natalie was able to get the West Vancouver Ambulatory Clinic up and running in 2005. She is an influential presence in the community, not just providing nursing care but meeting with families, sourcing appropriate services, providing help and advice with housing, supplying food and clothes for homeless clients and even finding care for pets. Not only has Natalie helped improve the life circumstances of her clients, she has been an amazing source of knowledge to other health care practitioners in the community.

Marieve Legrand, Clinical Practice

Stroke patients get better care at LGH thanks to the efforts of Marieve Legrand, the Stroke and TIA (Transient Ischemia Attack) Co-ordinator for Neurosciences at LGH. During 2019 she joined a province-wide effort to improve care protocols for stroke patients. Through improvements in screening, making access to treatment more efficient and participation in hands-on simulation training, medical teams working across several departments at LGH have been able to speed up the admissions, diagnostic and treatment process to improve outcomes for patients. Following the success of the program at LGH, Marieve lead the development of educational materials to support care at other facilities in the Coastal Community of care. Marieve’s extensive knowledge, passion and commitment to bring best practice in stroke treatment to LGH and her constant goal of raising the quality of care and improving the outcomes achieved by patients and their families, made her the ideal candidate to lead this project.

Michelle Connell, Outstanding Achievement

During her 17 years at LGH, Michelle has been nominated for a North Shore Health Care Award six times. Described as a “natural leader and creative genius” by her colleagues, she has used her legendary interpersonal skills to transform simulation as the training and education Simulation Educator for the Coastal Simulation Program. Not only did the number of simulation exercises more than double in a 10-month period, she also extended the rural outreach program and inspired eight new user groups to join the simulation program. Working with teams in Emergency, Marieve Legrand and neuro-physicians, she devised a set of simulation events that tested and improved the Code 77 algorithm. Thanks to the sim-based training, Emergency staff were subsequently able to reduce the critical medication administration time from 60 minutes to 17 minutes in real, live emergencies.

The Spirit of Philanthropy Award

The Spirit of Philanthropy Award which is presented by LGH Foundation to exceptional individuals who exemplify a giving spirit and who frequently go above and beyond in their support of the Foundation’s fundraising endeavours was presented to two of the Foundation’s most active supporters.

For close to 18 years, anesthesiologist, Dr. Shafik Thobani has been a champion of the Foundation. Over the past three years, his work behind-the-scenes has helped to raise millions of dollars for the Medical & Surgical campaign.

The second recipient, Egidio Pasin, Site Co-Ordinator, Diagnostic Imaging, has been an active volunteer at numerous Foundation events including emcee at the annual LGH staff BBQ. He has led out-of-hours donor events and most famously, he has taken on mascot duties for the Foundation and donned and danced in the Seymour the lion costume.

As well as receiving the admiration and respect of their colleagues, each of the 2019 recipients took home $1,000 and a keepsake trophy.

LGH Foundation would like to thank event emcee Braden Davie, Director Professional Practice, Nursing & Allied Health and all of the staff who participated in the celebration video that got the awards ceremony off to a rockin’ start!