Palliative care volunteers needed

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Niagara Health System’s Palliative Care and Bereavement Services provide compassionate and specialized care to patients with a life-limiting illness and their families while patients are in hospital.

The role of our palliative care volunteers is key to assisting patients and families through their end-of-life journey... » cont’d

Patients encouraged to use Urgent Care Centres

Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Niagara Health System is asking for your help in sharing the word about Urgent Care Centre services. The three Niagara Health Urgent Care Centres are a fast alternative for residents needing non-emergency medical care. With shorter wait times and fewer patients than ER departments, Niagara Health System Urgent Care Centres provide medical attention, lab and diagnostic testing for unexpected minor illnesses/injuries that are not life-threatening... » cont’d

25 years of cancer care in Niagara

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Touched by Cancer Open House April 19, 2 to 4 p.m. Outpatient Oncology Clinic

Oncology staff from 1986 in the original chemotherapy treatment room at the former Hotel Dieu Hospital.
Front row from left are Barbara Marshall, Leila Phillipson and Trudy Street. Back row from left are Mary Anne Goldsborough, Julie Moscher, Carolyn Helstrom, Elaine McLeod and Janet Wheeler.

Laurie Martens was 22 years old when she found out she had cancer. The first-time mom had given birth to her daughter just 10 days earlier.

Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a form of cancer that affects the lymphatic system, Laurie found herself too weak to care for herself or her baby, and her husband was working and unable to provide full-time care to them.

“I had to move in with my parents, and they took care of me and my baby,” says Laurie, reflecting on her challenging yet triumphant journey with cancer in 1988.

Every two weeks for the next six months, Laurie found herself at Hotel Dieu Hospital, undergoing chemotherapy treatment in the Oncology Department, which had opened just three years earlier.

“The nurses and the volunteers there were all so kind,” says Laurie. “They were always asking me to bring the baby in. It wasn’t like I was a patient. It was like we were a family... » cont’d