Alberta Children’s Hospital turns 10!

Extended: Colourful Calgary Tower Celebrates ACH’s 10th birthday The Calgary Tower was lit up in primary colours to celebrate the Alberta Children's Hospital's 10th birthday.

The Alberta Children’s Hospital in the city’s northwest has evolved from a small care centre into a world-class pediatric facility over the years and is celebrating its 10th anniversary on Tuesday.

The facility cares for over 90,000 children and their families each year and was moved from the old site on Richmond Road S.W. to the colourful new building on September 27, 2006.

The first hospital opened in 1922 in a three-storey home on 18th Avenue S.W. with 35 beds and was known as the Junior Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

An increase in demand, saw the hospital move to a larger, renovated apartment house a few blocks away and it was renamed the Red Cross Crippled Children’s Hospital in 1929.

In 1952, provincial and federal grants were secured and construction began on two wings at the Richmond Road site.  The hospital was then registered as a non-profit organization and named the Alberta Crippled Children's Hospital.

It was renamed for the last time in 1960, and was purchased by the provincial government in 1972 for $2 million.

Today, the Alberta Children’s Hospital is one of the largest in the country for sick kids and is dedicated to providing the best care possible for the children and their families.

Dr. Angelo Mikrogianakis joined the team from Toronto and says the opportunity to work in a first-class, innovative institution attracted him to Calgary.

“It’s challenging things that we do here, working with families in their time of need when their children are sick or unwell, but this institution, the building, the feel and the culture that it’s created makes it all worthwhile and makes it easy to do your job in the most stressful situations,” he said.

The hospital also helps smaller facilities in Alberta and neighbouring provinces and Dr. Mikrogianakis says the transport team makes the difference in the outcome for many children.

“If a sick child presents in a small community hospital, those people do their best, they want to care for that child as well as they can but at the end of the day, the resources are here at the children’s hospital so we have to be able to support them to get the care started and then to have our transport team leave here with specialized equipment that’s only available at the children’s hospital, get to the bedside in the community in a timely fashion and then deliver high-level emergency or ICU-type care so that they can resuscitate and stabilize that child and then bring them back to the children’s hospital so we can continue with their care here. So it makes quite a difference to be able to reach all of southern Alberta,” he said.

“There’s not always a clear, correct answer and often you have to go with what you know about that patient over the last hour,” said Laurie Lee, ICU Nurse Practitioner. “And then you come up with, okay, we’re going to go in the ambulance and if this happens, this is what we’re going to do, so let’s get this piece of equipment ready and if this happens, this is what we’re going to do. It’s a lot of anticipatory planning so that we can be ready for the worst case scenario but sometimes you’re not going to ever get a patient perfectly and you have to just get them to this amazing place where we can have all of those things available for them.”

The hospital and care teams rely on support from the community and staff say the 10^th anniversary is a great opportunity to recognize the public’s contributions and celebrate achievements.

“I just wanted to thank the community in helping us grow over the last ten years. It’s been very important, our transport team and our other innovative services wouldn’t have been able to grow and this 10^th anniversary is a great chance, not just for us to celebrate, but to really thank everyone who’s supported us in achieving this,” said Dr. Mikrogianakis.

“I love the kids. I love their parents. I love my team. I love this hospital,” said Lee.

The hospital and its programs, equipment, research and education are supported through the fundraising efforts of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. For more information or to make a donation, click HERE.