“In the surgery department, we are passionate about what we do and put our heart into it.”
Your donation will help Dr. Jules and his team provide life-saving surgeries every day.
Image
Story
The Fight of Lucia's Young Life
Three-month-old Lucia Philoxy came to SBH with an engorged belly and problems passing waste. Her mother, Carlene, was very worried. The team at St. Boniface took an X-ray and found an enormous cyst in her abdomen. Growths of this size are extremely rare in children so young, but if the surgical team didn’t operate Lucia did not have long to live.
Image
Most of SBH’s surgical team members had never done surgery on such a young patient. The nurse anesthetists were hesitant to even anesthetize a baby so small. Chief Surgeon Dr. Luther Ward guided them to through the procedure, encouraging and teaching along the way.
Because surgeries like this are complicated, Lucia needed to stay in the hospital for a couple of weeks and have additional procedures to ensure that her surgery was successful and healing as it should.
Lucia’s wound is closed now, and she is healthy and eating well again. She came back for a check-up recently, and the whole family is thriving.
Without access to safe surgical care, little Lucia likely would have died. Because her mother brought her to SBH, where all patients receive care regardless of their ability to pay, and patients stay for as long as needed to make them well again, Lucia is on the road to a normal, healthy childhood.