“There’s never enough help we can have for our kids.”
Winnipeg Blue Bomber, and father, Adam Bighill spoke with Global News this morning to share his son’s story – and his treatment at HSC Winnipeg-Children’s Hospital – which includes multiple surgeries to his bilateral cleft lip and palate, the very same condition Adam himself was also born with.
A nasty case of pneumonia saved Dylan Hill’s life.
At only 42 years old, Hill was fit and healthy. He had been in the in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves for five years, with all the required physicals. He had even run a full marathon in 2007 without any obvious signs of a problem.
Retired Winnipeg firefighter Rick Sterzer spent nearly five weeks at St. Boniface Hospital as a COVID-19 patient.
Though a first responder himself, Sterzer said his hospital stay has taken his appreciation for front-line staff to a new level.
“Being a patient opened my eyes to see what kind of person you have to be in these roles. The compassion they have is something you cannot teach.”
“I will never see them again in the same way.”
In hockey, if a goaltender has good form, the saves follow. It is equally true when it comes to saving a life. Just ask Rick St. Croix.
One early morning last December, the developmental goaltending coach for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose suffered a heart attack and collapsed at the airport while set to travel with the team on a road trip. It was the “widowmaker”, a 100 per cent blockage of the LAD (left anterior descending) artery. A widowmaker heart attack can stop the heart very fast and that is exactly what happened to St. Croix.
Photo credit: Charmaine Mallari Photography
Michelle and Gilbert (Gil) De Jesus haven’t had it easy.
The last two years have been filled with incredible challenges for the couple – but with every hurdle, they’ve become stronger, taking hard lessons and looking at them with gratitude. That’s how they feel about their experience at St. Boniface Hospital, where their son, Grayson, was delivered at only 27 weeks in January 2018.
