“I am writing this letter as a very sincere thank you for the amazing work your team has provided at TMH and BGH. My dad, Nelson Banting, was sent to TMH after several falls while walking our family dog, ‘Oscar’ at the Trenton marina very early on the morning of November 17. A couple of lovely bystanders called 911 and ensured that my dad and Oscar were safe until the ambulance arrived.

In addition to the scrapes from his fall, the ambulance driver quickly recognized that my dad had an irregular heartbeat. At TMH, he was diagnosed with blood clots in the heart and lungs and they sent him to BGH. At BGH, he was monitored carefully, placed on blood thinners, and spent the evening on the 6th floor.

The next morning, my mom and I went to BGH to visit my dad. A few hours later, we received a call that he had ‘coded’ and that the medical team was doing everything that they could to revive him. My mom and I arrived at BGH in complete shock and were directed immediately to the ICU where we waited on news. Dr. Laird compassionately delivered the message that it took 35 minutes to revive my dad and a large team worked on him relentlessly. He indicated that they threw my dad a ‘Hail Mary’ pass, which I felt was a good sign as my dad has always been a sports fan. He told us that my dad was very sick and that a full recovery was unlikely.

We visited him that evening and the nurses that were caring for him were so kind and thoughtful. They answered all of our questions and were incredibly patient with us (even when I called at 3:00 a.m. to see how he was doing). We went home and prayed with friends and family in our own special ways. The next morning, we got a call from the ICU and they told us that my dad was awake, breathing on his own, and could recall most everything about his life except the previous day. We were in shock because we honestly didn’t think that he could recover from a health event like this at the age of 80. It was due to the effort of your teams that made this happen. Slowly, he got better and better. He was moved from the ICU to the satellite ICU back to the 6th floor. Along the way, everyone was so incredibly caring.

On November 29th, my dad was released from the hospital and we quickly drove him back to Trenton to his favourite recliner to sit back and catch up on the sports that he had missed in the hospital. I cannot explain the gratitude that I have to still have my dad in this world. I had always considered myself very fortunate to have such a great man in my life. What has impressed me most is the level of expertise, care, and kindness that we received from BGH. The ‘security’ at the main door who knew my name and always asked how my dad was doing, to the care workers, nutritionists, cleaning staff, nurses, and doctors. It was a pretty magical ‘customer service experience’; and you should be really proud of the team that you have. They are all heroes. I just wanted to reach out and let you know how much I appreciate having my family together for another Christmas.” – Julie Banting