Jeff Palmer’s Story
Jeff Palmer was feeling good on the first day of the annual Cops for Cancer fundraising ride in 2015. The West Vancouver police officer had chatted with students at a Burnaby elementary school before he headed back out on the road with other members of his cycling team. But shortly thereafter, he started feeling lightheaded. Just as he thought about telling nearby paramedics, his heart stopped.
Help BC’s busiest cardiac care team
Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation wants to bring the latest technology and equipment to the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab – the busiest in the province and serving the entire Fraser Health region.
The Cardiac Care Campaign has a $3.3 million dollar fundraising goal to upgrade Royal Columbian Hospital’s two cath lab suites, which are available 24/7 for cardiac emergencies like acute heart attacks. The interventional cardiology team performs high-levels of angioplasty to restore blood flow to blocked arteries and conducts angiograms to diagnose heart disease and other cardiac problems.
Colin Lewis’s Story
It was a series of fortunate circumstances that helped save the life of Colin Lewis. The 73-year old White Rock man was in Abbotsford with family, on their way in a van to pick up the grandchildren from school, when his heart suddenly stopped. Thanks to the quick actions of a number of people in the crucial minutes after Colin suffered cardiac arrest, he was able to successfully undergo emergency quadruple bypass surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital.
Rose Aviado’s Story
Rose Aviado had not been feeling well the night before. Despite that, as she woke up this October morning, the Surrey resident decided she would not call in sick.
Instead, Rose headed off to work with her husband Cesar, as usual, walking part of the route to the office where they both worked. It was on their way there that the seriousness of her condition started to become clear. Rose complained of dizziness then stumbled to the ground. She would suffer the first of several cardiac arrests that day and in the process would become the first patient at Royal Columbian Hospital to have her life saved with the help of a new donor-funded piece of equipment that had arrived just the day before.