Courageous kids: A day in the life of the Children's OR
Global Television takes you inside the Montreal Children's Hospital operating room with a documentary featuring five incredible children dealing with life-threatening health problems.
Justin, Liora, Ela, Lucas and Alexis are five amazing children each coping with life-threatening disorders and diseases, including brittle bone disease, cancer, heart failure, and epilepsy. The lives of these children are in the hands of surgeons and healthcare providers at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre. Global Television chronicles their incredible stories of courage and endurance in COURAGEOUS KIDS: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHILDREN'S OR.
This gripping 60-minute documentary airs on September 18 at 9 pm on Global Quebec, cable 3, in English, and on September 25 at 2 pm on CH Montreal, cable 14, in French.
Privileged access was given to Global Quebec's camera crew and reporter, as they followed each child from treatment, to their bedside, right into the OR and through their post-operative rehabilitation. Each child and their family will overwhelm you with their spirit and determination throughout these life-altering procedures. You will be amazed by the dexterity, skill and stamina of the surgeons and the nurses at the Children's.
"Each child we met during the taping of this documentary gave us so much of themselves that their stories told themselves," says Karen Macdonald, executive producer. "Working so closely with families going through the most difficult of times of their lives was a privilege, and we thank them for their accessibility and openness to the project. We wish each child a speedy recovery and a lifetime of laughter."
These are the five children you will meet in the documentary:
Justin Gourley is a 15-year-old boy with brittle bone disease. His spine is curved like an "s" and is collapsing onto his lungs, which is making it increasingly difficult to breathe. To save his life, Dr. Jean Albert Ouellet and his team must perform a very delicate and intricate surgery to straighten his spine using rods and screws.
Alexis Lefebvre deserves a purple heart for bravery. The four-year-old has already undergone three open heart surgeries in his very short life. He was born with severe heart malformations. Pediatric cardiac surgeon Dr. Christou Tchervenkov has had to gradually rebuild the child's heart so that Alexis can have the chance to live a normal life.
Three years ago, Liora Benamou was diagnosed with a massive tumour on her neck, while still in utero. Weighing as much as she did, the tumour would have crushed her lungs at birth. The surgeons at the Children's performed an unprecedented surgery known as an EXIT procedure to remove the tumour. This radical surgery was done while the baby was still partly in her mother's womb.
Ela Joshi, a two-year-old girl from Quebec City, was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood eye cancer when she was only ten months old. She has undergone radiation, chemo and laser therapy at the Children's retinoblastoma clinic. Ela is still battling her cancer with inspiring courage.
Lucas Carlini is among only a handful of Canadian children who have undergone a radical form of neurological surgery. Doctors had to cut down to the very core of this three-year-old boy's brain to remove a tumour that gave him horrible epileptic seizures.
COURAGEOUS KIDS: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHILDREN'S OR is co-hosted by Dr. Kenneth Shaw and Dr. Hélène Flageole. Narrators are Macha Grenon and Al Dubois for the English verison. Macha Grenon and Jean-Luc Brassard narrate the French version, which is hosted by Dr. Hélène Flageole.
COURAGEOUS KIDS is brought to you by the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation. If you would like a review copy of the documentary please contact Global Television at the number below.
The Montreal Children's Hospital is the pediatric teaching hospital of the McGill University Health Centre. This institution is a leader in the care and treatment of sick infants, children and adolescents from across Quebec. The Montreal Children's Hospital provides a high level and broad scope of healthcare services, and provides ultra specialized care in many fields, including cardiology and cardiac surgery; neurology and neurosurgery; traumatology; genetic research; psychiatry; and child development and musculoskeletal conditions, including orthopedics and rheumatology. Fully bilingual and multicultural, the institution respectfully serves an increasingly diverse community in more than 50 languages.