A man’s $300,000 donation helped complete renovations at one of the operating rooms at Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg.
The hospital says the project was two years in the making. In the fall of 2017, area resident Bruno Harilaid approached the Northumberland Hills Hospital Foundation, inquiring about a project he could fund to express appreciation for the care provided to him by Dr. Mukesh Bhargava, the hospital’s internal medicine specialist and chief of staff.
Around the same time, the hospital says surgeon Dr. Kaes Al-Ali shared a vision to update the 16-year-old operating rooms to keep pace with advancing technology and medical innovation.
“This is a story of a real win-win situation,” NHH Foundation executive director Rhonda Cunningham said in a news release. “Bruno arrived in my office at the same time that the surgical services suite renovation was being proposed by the clinical team as a top priority.
“Each year, we work with our entire hospital team to identify and plan for what is needed most, and how we can help. We were able to match Bruno’s interest as a donor with high priority capital equipment needs and make Dr. Al-Ali’s vision a reality.”
Work to transform the suite took place during the last two weeks of August, the hospital said, with the first surgery in the updated space held on Sept. 4.
“This state-of-the-art operating room features a design that takes into consideration today’s best practices for surgery,” Dr. Andrew Stratford, chief of surgery, said in the release.
“All of the required equipment is suspended from the ceiling and the technological and electrical requirements are buried within the walls, making the room sleek in design and much safer for the patient.”
Tracey Chester, a registered nurse for the hospital’s surgical services program, says staff are grateful to Harilaid and the foundation.
“We have excellent surgeons, anesthetists, nurses, equipment and now we have a cutting-edge operating room theatre that rivals what you would find in the bigger city hospitals,” she said.
In the last fiscal year alone, NHH surgical services performed 5,116 surgical cases – 120 more than the year prior.
“This is where we perform life-saving work, and thanks to the generosity of Mr. Harilaid, we can continue to provide the highest level of care to Northumberland patients,” said Stratford.
WATCH: Transformation at Campbellford Memorial Hospital