Isolation rooms for leukemia patients were refitted in 2006 at the Sacré-Coeur Hospital, thanks to the contribution by the Foundation to the health facility. (Photo: Jacques Pharand)
A cure to modernize the Sacré-Coeur Hospital
Thanks to a major fundraising campaign started in the fall of 2005 by the Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation, the health facility on Gouin Boulevard is about to be revitalized.
The objective is to collect 35 million dollars by the end of 2009 for the development of the hospital, which was built in 1925. More than 20 projects are planned for this major campaign, including the refitting of the intensive care unit, the modernization of the medical biology laboratories and the purchase of equipment for the pharmacy.
"Thirty five million, that appears enormous, but the foundation has already reached 80% of its objective after 15 months,” said Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation President Mario-Olivier Massie. “All that is done with volunteers who put in the time and give their contacts."
Activities to come
To achieve its goals, the foundation is organizing, with various partners, several fundraising activities. Over the years, these have grown. "In 2001, when I started here, there were three events, now there are 10,” said Massie.
New in 2007 is a fashion show tol be held on March 27. This activity will be used to finance the mother-child unit of the hospital. The doctors of this family medicine unit will be present. Some will even take part in the show. The honorary president will be singer Mitsou, who is the mother of two children. The foundation hopes to make an annual event out of it.
Among the other events to come, is the "Surf and Turf Festival" May 11. The activity takes place each year in the borough of Saint-Laurent at the Raymond-Bourque Arena, attracting 750 people in 2006.
Impact on the hospital
With $28 million collected to date, the foundation is already able to finance hospital projects such as the installation of the new coronary care unit. Four new isolation rooms with independent filtration could were installed in 2006 in the haematology and oncology units. These private rooms add to the six others that already exist, and are used to look after leukemia, bone marrow grafts and cancer patients, who need intensive chemotherapy.
"These rooms have the same kind of filtration as in an operating room,” said Sacré-Coeur Hospital Chief of Haematology-Oncology Jean-Pierre Moquin. “We speak about purified air where we remove 99.9% of all dust and bacteria. This protects patients, whose immune system is weak against infection."
According to Moquin, the current campaign of the foundation is significant and is advantageous to the facility. "This often relates to projects which the Minister of Health does not have the means to finance within a reasonable time,” he added. “This helps makes it possible to speed up the processes and make it so that the patients are better treated."
The donors to the major campaign of the Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation include companies, foundations and individuals. Employees and volunteers also contribute, in addition to doctors from the facility.
The foundation financed the isolation rooms in its entirety. It cost $700,000. Hospital doctors contributed to the project by giving $100,000. (Translated by Michael Beigleman)
Météo: Montréal, 4 juillet 2008 / 24°C
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par Véronique Leduc 
Steven Guilbeault - 
