SickKids: a home away from home
Author: Alicia Erz
SickKids has become like a second home for Crystal and her family. Diagnosed with spina bifida shortly after birth, Crystal was referred to SickKids for treatment from 1979 to 1998. A few years after Crystal began treatment at SickKids, her future husband Colin was referred there after his family doctor noticed that his right leg wasn’t growing at the same speed as his left. And in 2006, Crystal and Colin once again returned to SickKids after their son Keenan came into the world following a complicated delivery that resulted in an emergency c-section. He had sustained a brain injury that caused a bleed in his brain and seizures as a result. He was transferred to SickKids for evaluation and treatment.
“When we were told that Keenan was being transferred to SickKids, it was like a sigh of relief,” said Crystal. “It was a place we knew well. Walking into the doors at the Elizabeth Street entrance, we felt not only hopeful, but comforted just being there.”
When the family comes for their yearly clinic visit, they say it feels like visiting family.
After two weeks of treatment, the family was discharged, but returned three months later when Keenan’s paediatrician noticed signs of liver failure. After weeks of testing and treatment, Keenan was placed on the transplant list.
“I remember very clearly the day he was listed for transplant. The amount of fear and worry and shock I felt was unbelievable,” said Crystal. “It was Keenan’s nurse that comforted me. She sat quietly next to me after the surgeon left, rubbing my back and handing me Kleenex. She answered every question and waited until I had calmed down before she went to check on other patients.”
It is the experiences with staff that Crystal remembers most about her time at SickKids. “The night before surgery was always filled with nervousness, but there was a nurse on 6F, Louise, who had a tradition of sorts with us patients. Around 9:30 or 10, Louise would wake me with a treat, usually a root beer float.”
She also fondly remembers Dr. Robert Salter, her orthopaedic surgeon at SickKids, hoisting her onto his shoulders and giving her a piggy back ride down to the OR waiting room prior to a surgery that she was particularly afraid of.
“With every clinic visit that I had with Dr. Salter, he would always shake my hand and say ‘friends for life’,” Crystal said. “That moment when an adult comes down to your level and says ‘friends’ made the whole experience that much easier as I felt like he was recognizing me as a person rather than just another patient.”
For Colin, it was the newly opened Atrium that he remembers most about his time at SickKids. “I was in awe of it and the really cool view I had from my room. Back then, there was a pig and cow that would move back and forth across the atrium ceiling that I loved to watch.”
After Keenan’s liver transplant on January 9, 2007, which was followed by two months of recovery, he was transferred home. He hasn’t been an inpatient since then, but is regularly followed by the transplant team. When the family comes for their yearly clinic visit, they say it feels like visiting family.
“We walk down familiar halls, see familiar faces, watch as change happens but also take comfort in some things that remain the same,” said Crystal. “Keenan’s support team has become like an extended family. They are always a phone call away and answer any question regardless of how silly it may seem and are always there to assure us that we can do this.”
