Stollery Children's Hospital

The Stollery: Around 1983 Bob and Shirley Stollery provided a generous donation that would be the catalyst for the creation of the Stollery Children's Hospital, as Edmonton's "state-of-the-art" children's hospital. The Stollerys promised to provide significant funding if such a hospital could be built.

Since a "free-standing children's hospital" in the 1900's was not considered economically viable a capital fundraising campaign took place that raised over $10 million which aided in the construction of the Stollery Children's Health Centre. The Health Centre became known as the Stollery Children's Hospital in 2001 emphasizing the facility as being an independent hospital from the University of Alberta Hospital.

In Alberta the Stollery is the "only provider of all pediatric complex cardiac surgical services and is the only referral center in Western Canada for pediatric heart and liver transplants". Other specialty services include pediatric and neonatal intensive care and pediatric emergency. Biomedical engineers of the hospital own the rights to SAINT, a small intensive care unit that transfers severely ill infants safely in sub-zero tempera

The Stollery has successfully achieved many firsts from the millions of dollars in funding over the years. The Stollery was the first hospital in Western Canada to have an Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO, a life-saving device which acts as an external heart and lungs), being able to replace a valve within a child's heart without requiring surgery, providing a pediatric intestinal transplant,and having a pediatric thrombosis program.

In Canada, the Stollery had the first pediatric auto-islet transplant, and the only Weight and Health Pediatric Centre. It is also North America's first "reference centre for the Berlin Heart.

According to the official web site the vision of the hospital is:

1. That any child who becomes ill or injured receive the finest possible care in a welcoming children’s facility and
2. That the Stollery Children’s Hospital become a highly respected leader in North America in the treatment of children’s health problems.

In order to raise money to support funding for the children's hospital many events take place throughout the year within the city of Edmonton such as Radiothon's (local participating radio stations include CISN Country 103.9, 92.5 JOE FM and 630 CHED, The Bear 100.3, etc.), Tee Up for Tots, Caring for Kids Broadcast and Snowflake Gala.