InTouch Summer 2013

The Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation Newsletter • Spring 2013

IN THIS ISSUELegacy Gift 3

Auxiliary Celebrates 40 Years 5

Fracture Navigator Program 6

Berncie Boudreau Bursary 6

Visit the Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation online atwww.dghfoundation.ca

DGH Foundation325 Pleasant Street,Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4G8

902-465-8560

When the 5th floor is completed with approximately 50 medical and surgical beds, the Dartmouth

General could be in a position to tackle some of the surgical wait times, particularly as it pertains to orthopedic procedures. The service plan (clinical plan) for the DGH is currently under development and the Foundation would like to see the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Joint Replacement at the hospital. This could have a significant impact on the current wait

times, while also preparing for issues that will arise over the next twenty to thirty years.

The Foundation will be working with the Hospital and with Capital Health in the months ahead to more fully understand the complete service plan for the Dartmouth General and we look forward to sharing this good news with you as it develops.

In addition to the completed 5th floor, the project includes new operating, PACU and recovery rooms which will be located in a three storey addition on the north side of the hospital.

InTouch is published semi-annually

for friends and donors of theDartmouth General Hospital.

Board of Directors 2013

Executive Bill MacMaster, Chair

Clifford A. Moir, Chair EmeritusKim Conrad, Past ChairPeter Boyd, Treasurer

Shirley Morash, Secretary

DirectorsDiane Burns

Chris GiannouTodd Howlett, M.D.,

Medical Representative Marilyn Lee, Auxiliary Co-President

Robert MiedemaPatrick O’Regan

Noel RyanFred Smithers

Jamie Thomson

Foundation StaffZita Longobardi,

Executive DirectorNicol Clarke,

Administrative AssistantLisa Cottreau,

Special Projects Officer

All inquiries may be directed to:Dartmouth General Hospital

Charitable Foundation325 Pleasant Street

Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4G8Tel: 465-8560Fax: 465-1129

Email:[email protected]

Visit our website at:www.dghfoundation.ca

Visit us on Facebook

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CapitalEquipment2013-2014

During this fiscal year of 2013-2014, the Foundation will be providing funding the following medical equipment items.

For the Surgical Department: • Replacement of OR lights in OR#2 • Cold knife Urethrotomy systems (2) • Digital Tower Lenses (6) • Laparoscopes (3) • Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy set • Fracture Table

For the Emergency Department • IMPAX Units (6)

The Foundation is also providing the funds to purchase new bedside tables and overbed tables throughout the hospital.

NewHours forWalk-InX-RayService

Monday to Friday (except statutory holidays)8 am to 3 pm

What will the new expansion project mean for the Dartmouth General?

Walk-in outpatient X-ray hours have been extended to provide patients with more options for accessing walk-in X-ray services. The new hours will be available as follows:

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Spring 2013 | InTouch

Mrs. Mitchell was very close to the Brennan family and appreciated and admired the work of her first cousin, Dr. Maxwell Brennan particularly his efforts to help establish the Dartmouth General Hospital. She knew full well that Dr. Brennan and some of the other Dartmouth doctors spent many hours and much energy raising funds to get a hospital built for the community. Their fundraising efforts began in the early 1940s and the monies collected were held in trust until the construction of the DGH began in the mid 1970s.

Both Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell always felt that the DGH was ‘their hospital’. They knew the importance of having a hospital in Dartmouth and in tribute to her cousin, Dr. Brennan, and the work he put forward she bequeathed a most generous donation on behalf of her husband and herself.

Life of a Dartmouth Doctor circa 1937-70’s(Stories of Dr. Maxwell Brennan, recounted by his daughter,

Noella Brennan Fisher).

My father, Dr. Maxwell Daniel Brennan (known by some as “Max the Knife,” since he was a surgeon), and Dr. Peter Hebb, set up shop here in the late 1930s on Portland Street in a medical practice that Dr. Hebb Sr. had established. They subsequently moved from the Hebb House to a new building they built on the corner of Portland and Canal streets, which they and the City of Dartmouth eventually turned into an emergency centre after early efforts to build a hospital failed.

They then bought and renovated the old Harbour Motors Ford dealership

A Legacy Gift Honouring the Workof the Late Dr. Maxwell D. Brennan

building across the street, renovated it and ran the medical centre out of there. The doctors who remained after Dad had long retired from the practice built the newer building on this site, which didn’t turn out to be a financial success, so the practice Dad started with Dr. Hebb now continues in the Dartmouth Medical Centre in the Zatzman building further down on Portland Street.

We really don’t know many of the thousands of good stories that Dad would have experienced, as he would never talk about his patients at home, but these few we either overheard or heard secondhand.

•Afterthefirstyearofpractice,DadandDr.PeterHebbhadnetted$11tosplit between them. This was, of course, prior to socialized medicine!

•SincetherewasnohospitalinDartmouth,theypurchasedthethennewtechnology, an X-ray machine, for the Dartmouth Medical Centre. They didn’t know how to operate this machine properly, so Dad and Dr. Hebb were taking X-rays themselves without the protections that are now de rigueur. Dad had his fingers burned by the radiation and, being a surgeon, was told he would have to have his fingers removed. He chose not to do that and suffered through life thereafter with a fingernail that was split down the middle but he continued to do surgery!

Dr. Hebb, on the other hand, had a pre-disposition in his family to leukemia, and with too much radiation he sadly developed this disease and died within a couple of weeks of operating the new technology. A radiologist was soon hired thereafter to operate the X-ray machine.

•SincetherewasnobridgefromHalifaxtoDartmouthuntilthe1950sforease of getting to the Halifax hospitals, the only way to get to Halifax was by ferry or by driving around the Bedford Basin, which Dad had to do on many occasions and in the middle of the night. Doctors had priority to get in the early line up for the ferry, but all of their operations and the delivery of hospital births had to await the ferry. Much of what they had to do was either done on this side of the harbour or in the homes of the patients. Their practice covered areas far down the Eastern Shore, as well as Dartmouth and sometimes in Halifax and the rest of the county.

•Doctorshadtodotheirowncollections,butmanyfolkscouldnotaffordto pay for medical care so, often we would have a fresh fish, homemade bread, jam, pickles or the like brought home by Dad from his patients. The doctors often did not get paid for their work at all. I recall that Dad was very

Last year, the Dartmouth General Hospital received a substantial gift from the Estate of Helen Mitchell. Mrs. Mitchell (the widow of Ken Mitchell) spent most of her life in Dartmouth. According to her cousin and friend, Noella Brennan Fisher, Helen and Ken Mitchell loved Dartmouth. She was involved in many organizations including Brightwood Golf Club, the Dartmouth Curling Club, St. Peter’s Church and the CWL.

Mrs. Helen Mitchell

•Doctorsinthosedaysalwaysworeawhiteshirt,atieandasuitcoat.They also wore white coats in the hospitals or their offices. One Christmas, when we were living at Porter’s Lake, due to a lack of housing in Dartmouth during the war years, Dad took the train from Dartmouth down to the Lake on Christmas Eve. A package was delivered to the Medical Centre, and Dad thought it was Christmas gifts from our grandparents in Toronto.

It was a wild snowstorm that night, and it was over a mile from the train station to the house. The dirt road was of course not plowed in those days, so Dad had to walk through the deep snow by foot carrying this big package. When he got to the house, Mom opened the parcel to find not Christmas gifts but the Medical Centre’s laundered white coats! That was quite the Christmas!

•DuringthesecondHalifaxexplosionin1945,wewereagainatPorter’sLake, and Dad had to stay in town to tend to the wounded. We were 20 miles away and we had no phone at the Lake. The nearest phone was at the Glebe house near the church in Chezzetcook! Fearing another major explosion like the one in 1917, officials kept telling everyone to get out of town and Dad was sending people he saw at the office to the Lake to our house. We had hoards of people at the house sleeping on the floors, and that was the first we heard of what happened. Of course, there were no grocery stores in the country one could pop into to get food for these throngs. A sheep farmer lived up the road from us, so Mom went to him and got a big leg of lamb and made a humongous lamb stew that fed the crowds for days.

•DadusedtodothegroceryshoppingforourhouseholdattheoldDominionstore on Canal Street just behind the old Medical Centre and chat with his patients and give medical advice there or at garages when folks went in to fill up their gas and so on. One man told me he met Dad in such a garage, and Dad often made the mistake (or not) of asking, “How are you?” He usually got an earful. On this occasion, the man told Dad he had a sore toe and foot. Dad asked him what he had been eating lately. The man told him he had a box of grapefruit from Florida, so Dad told him to stop eating the grapefruit as he had likely contracted gout from it. The man stopped eating the acidic grapefruit and his toe and foot got better. No fee was charged nor money paid. This is how a lot of the early Dartmouth doctors took care of their patients.

•IamnotsureifIagreewiththisnexttaleornot,andIthinkthingsmayhave changed in this regard in medical practice today. A friend of mine was talking to Dad after her father was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. She was wondering whether the family should tell him that it was terminal or not. Dad told her: “He only has one thing left, and that’s hope, so don’t take that away from him.”

On that note, I trust that the bequest Helen left to this hospital will give hope to many patients here in the future.

- Noella Brennan Fisher, QC, JP

much against medicare, but once it arrived he rather liked the benefits of it, particularly in the collections department!

•Therewerenoadoptionagenciesinthoseearlydays,sodoctorswouldknow of women who wanted to have their babies put up for adoption and families who wanted to adopt. On one occasion, I overheard Dad telling a friend of his in Florida after he retired that he was nearly “floored” one night when he and my mother were at a dinner dance. A boy, by then a young man, whom Dad had placed for adoption was dancing with his biological mother—and neither the boy nor his mother knew who they actually were! The secrecy surrounding adoptions is now a thing of the past, but it wasn’t then.

•AmanwhohadgangreneinhistoesandcametotheofficetoseeDad.He told the patient that he would have to remove his toes. The man wanted to think about this and was to return to the office to have the operation done. After a period, the man didn’t return and I guess Dad was afraid he would lose his leg, so he stopped at the patient’s house to see why he hadn’t returned for the operation. (Dad, again, was telling this to his friend in Florida, and I overheard the conversation.)

Dad said he noticed a strong smell as he entered the house. He spoke to the man’s wife and asked where the man was, and the wife directed him up the stairs. The smell got worse as Dad climbed the stairs. He found the man with his foot all bandaged up with towels and cloths, so he asked if he could have a look at his toes. He unwound the cloths and the stench was terrible by now. The man had put horse manure on his foot, and the maggots had cleaned off the offending toes much better than Dad said he could have done with surgery! They were “clean as a whistle,” he recounted.

•OnceawomanwholivedonDevil’sIsland,offEasternPassage,wasexpecting a baby, so Dad had to get a boat out to the island to deliver it. The delivery was late, and he had to stay out there for about five days or so. This family had about nine children and never had any money to pay Dad. One day, years later, a man knocked on our front door and asked for Dad. He told Dad that he was the oldest son, who was at the house when Dad was on the island for the last delivery. He said that his family always wanted to pay him for all he did for them but they never had the money to do so. This man had a teapot in his hand that his family had kept from their first ancestors who came from Ireland, and he gave it to Dad. My brother, Dan, still has the teapot.

•DadhadanoldNashcarhewouldmakehousecallsin.Oftenhewouldtake one or two of us kids with him to get us out of Mom’s hair for a few hours. We usually had to wait in the car, though occasionally if the family had children, we would go inside to play with them. That Nash car got stuck in mud holes and dirt roads all over this area. Dad would have to call on farmers with a horse to pull him out from time to time. No CAA then!

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Please support your Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation - working hard to make a difference in health care.

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Spring 2013 | InTouch

In May 1973 discussions of how to establish a hospital auxiliary were taking place around Joyce Sawler’s kitchen table. Planning for a new hospital in Dartmouth was of paramount importance.

In 1973 energies were focused on raising funds towards the cost of the new hospital. The Auxiliary was encouraged to concentrate on the provision of patient comforts which is so important to a hospital but was often overlooked. And the Auxiliary responded with the creation of The Corner Gift Shoppe, providing night lunches for inpatients, staffing the library, the pastoral care office and providing assistance in the Pharmacy Department.

Much has changed over 40 years but thankfully, much is still the same. Today, members provide assistance at Information Services, the Emergency Department, Palliative Care, Transitional Care, Pharmacy, Diabetic Clinic, patient menus and continue to serve night lunches while also staffing the Gift Cart throughout the hospital during the weekdays. In 2006 under the Auxiliary’s leadership (and in partnership with the DGH Foundation and Capital Health) the Healing Garden became a reality for patients, families, staff, and the general community. Under the Auxiliary’s caring hands, the garden flourishes.

In addition to providing over 15,000 hours of ‘person time’ each year to various departments, the Auxiliary has funded projects, programs and equipment items. Their financial contributions to thehospitaltop$1.3million.

DGH Auxiliary Celebrates 40 Years (1973-2013)

2013AuxiliaryExecutive

Co-President Marilyn Lee

Co-President Ethel Oliver

1st Vice President Patricia Morris

2nd Vice President Carol Peet

Recording Secretary Fran Turnbull

Corresponding Secretary Mary Boddy

Treasurer Vel Strum

Past DGH Auxiliary Presidents were honoured for their fund raising work and for their dedication to patient care.

Heather Francis, DGH Health Services Director, is shown with past Presidents, Joyce Sawler and Arlene Frizzle at the 2011 Annual Dinner.

The annual Holly Tree Bazaar, a major fundraiser, features a variety of handmade crafts, bake goods and plants.

Art Bennett has been volunteering at the DGH since it opened 36 years ago.

2013AuxiliaryProject

The 2013 project will be providing funding for innovative half wall permanent partitions between the emergency cubicles, replacing the curtains. These half walls provide a much greater level of patient confidentiality, enhanced personal privacy as well as a greater esthetic for the department. The Emergency Department is preparing the renovation plan in order to provide the least amount of disruption for patients and staff.

The new ER cubicle walls will look like those pictured above. This photo is of the walls in the Cobequid Health Care Centre which were constructed last year.

2013 Bernice Boudreau BursaryGrant Patriquin is the recipient of the Bernice Boudreau Bursary for 2013.The$1000educationbursaryisusedforcontinuedprofessionaldevelopmentin Palliative Care. Gerry Boudreau established the Bursary in 2006 in memory of his wife Bernice and in tribute for the care she received through the DGH Palliative Care Program.

Grant Patriquin receives the Bernice Boudreau Bursary from Tyler Boudreau, grandson of Bernice

Boudreau. Also pictured is Gerry Boudreau.

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A broken wrist, then a hip, then another hip, then a shoulder, then a couple of compressed vertebrae can be the “osteoporosis career” of a patient who never is officially diagnosed with the disease. Fragility fractures, the consequence of osteoporosis, are responsible for excess mortality, morbidity, chronic pain,

admission to institutions and economic costs. They represent 80% of all fractures in menopausal women over age 50. Those with hip or vertebral fractures have substantially increased risk of death after the fracture. Despite the high prevalence of fragility fractures in the Canadian population and the knowledge that fractures predict future fractures, fewer than 20% of women and 10% of men receive therapies to prevent further fractures. These statistics contrast sharply with the situation for cardiovascular disease, where 75% of patients who have had myocardial infarction receive ß block-ers to prevent another event.

Medical management of low trauma fractures by a coordinator who takes responsibility for identify-ing fragility fracture patients, educating, performing risk assessments, determining indications for treatment according to national guidelines, communicating with primary care providers to support appropriate therapy, follow-up with patients to ensure persistence with care will help to ensure that the care gap in the management of the underlying osteoporosis causing these fractures is treated (Eisman et. al., 2012). We have been fortunate here at DGH to have received grant funding from Sun Life Financial to start just such a program.

The Fracture Navigator program officially got underway in February with the endorsement of the radiologists and the orthopedic surgeons. The program leader is Dr. Diane Theriault and the Fracture Navigator is Carla Purcell RN. Carla sees patients who have low impact wrist, shoulder, hip, and pelvis fractures in Ortho Clinic on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She also screens for patients who have incidental spine fractures showing up on chest x-rays, CT scans etc, and communicates with the primary care provider to ensure an appropriate risk assessment is completed for these patients.

In the 2 short months since the program has started, 52 patients in the Ortho Clinic and 68 patients with incidental spine fractures have been identified. The early identification of these patients, screening and diagnosis with osteoporosis will lead to appropriate treatment and prevention of repeat fractures and other fracture related complications. This will reduce patient suffering as well as fracture costs to the health care system.

Osteoporosis is not a benign disease. Pain, reduced mobility, disability, fear of falling and loss of independence are real to the patients who suffer from the disease. Anything that we can do to prevent future fractures and mitigate the consequences of the disease can only lead to positive outcomes.

Fracture Navigator Program

The Fracture Navigator position held by Clincial Nurse Educator, Carla Purcell, is a one year pilot project sponsored by Sun Life Financial.

PRESENTED BY

AND Collins Barrow

Chartered Accountants

Tel: 465-8531www.dghfoundation.ca

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Spring 2013 | InTouch

Saturday, June 1st, 2013Call 465.8531 for information

Thank You! A big Thank Youto the sponsors,supporters and

attendees ofThe Affair

- A Spanish Fiesta 2013.

PRESENTED BY

Register Early for the DGH Golf ScrambleMonday, September 9th, 2013

Agreement No.40028771

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