It’s Heart Month! February is not only the time to celebrate love and Valentine’s day, it’s also an opportunity to highlight the incredible work our children’s hospitals are doing to improve services related to cardiovascular and heart conditions.

Here are some amazing stats from across our network:

• Over 10,000 patients have visited the Heart Centre at BC Children’s Hospital
• At Alberta Children’s Hospital, extracorporeal life support (ECLS), a specialized heart and lung bypass, has saved the lives of 37 children who otherwise wouldn’t have survived.
• The Stollery Children’s Hospital is the hub for specialized paediatric heart surgeries in Western Canada.
• SickKids are the only Canadian hospital that corrects heart defects in babies before they’re even born.

The treatment and care provided to families is changing lives and changing the future of Canada. Without support for our children’s hospitals, tens of thousands of kids, families and communities would be tremendously impacted.

We also want to show some love to kids who have cardiovascular-related conditions. The stories of our patient ambassadors like Blayke and Sydnee remind us that heart complications, including strokes, affect kids too.

February 1st – 7th was Eating Disorders Awareness Week. There is a pressing need to support children and adolescents with eating disorders and other challenges related to relationships with food. Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation recognizes that the current climate has increased concerns for kids who are vulnerable to such disorders.

According to Dr. Holly Agostino, Program Director of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Eating Disorders Clinic, “since the start of the pandemic, new diagnoses of anorexia nervosa have doubled, as adolescents present with extreme food restriction, weight loss, and an intense fear of gaining weight.”

Heart Month reminds us that heart conditions like strokes affect kids too. Two years ago, Sydnee was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and underwent surgery in Edmonton. While the operation to correct her heart was successful, when Sydnee woke up, she couldn’t speak, read or even recognize letters of the alphabet.

Funds raised help support kids like Sydnee, who are able to benefit from a robot called KINARM, a programmable device that has custom games to help with sensory and motor skills. Read her story here.