Scott McGillivray’s Story
It was a beautiful, unseasonably hot spring day in the Lower Mainland, the start of what turned out to be the longest warm spell of 2009. For Scott McGillivray, it was a perfect day to cruise home from work on his one-year-old Victory Jackpot motorcycle. He was in Cloverdale, close to his destination, when a truck swerved into him. The accident left Scott with a number of injuries, including several shattered ribs and a broken shoulder blade. But it was a tear in the body’s main artery that put his life most in danger.
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.