Having had two vascular surgeries performed within months of each other meant Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) patient Mike Leach faced double the risk, double the recovery time, and double the worry.
Today, Leach is a grateful patient who is sharing his healthcare story to support the PRHC Foundation’s $70 million campaign for world-class healthcare close to home — including by revolutionizing vascular care through the development of the region’s first state-of-the-art hybrid operating room (OR).
A priority for the PRHC Foundation’s Campaign for PRHC, the advanced surgical suite will allow specialized clinical teams to perform multiple open and minimally invasive operations on the same patient, on the same day and in the same room. This will result in fewer procedures, safer outcomes, faster recovery times, reduced patient wait times, and, ultimately, improved quality of care for patients like Leach.
“The hybrid OR is such an exciting advancement that will have a life-changing impact on the thousands of patients who rely on PRHC for their vascular care,” says PRHC Foundation president and CEO Lesley Heighway.
“When you’re facing serious, complex conditions that require multiple urgent surgeries, you can’t afford to have one, recover, and then have the next. Some patients are so ill that they don’t have that time and delays are life-threatening. A hybrid OR would allow experts to do both, or more, in the same surgical session. Less wait, less risk, shorter time in hospital, and shorter recovery all means less worry for patients and their loved ones and more time together.”
Having a hybrid OR available at PRHC would have allowed Leach to have both his surgeries at the same time when he faced his own vascular health crisis.
The Bowmanville resident’s healthcare journey began when he developed what he thought was a water blister from his new shoes along with leg cramps that he attributed to aging. When his right heel didn’t heal, Leach learned he had a diabetic ulcer and needed to have a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line inserted to treat the infection. Because the ulcer was so severe and deep, he was at risk of losing his foot if the ulcer reached the bone.
VIDEO: “If PRHC had a hybrid OR, both of my surgeries could have been done in one day.”
While he was on the PICC line, Leach was limited in his mobility and was unable to travel to his job as an IT specialist in Peterborough or enjoy the things he usually did, like cooking, woodworking, gardening, and spending time with his wife and young adult son. After another diabetic ulcer on his left heel was punctured, it was determined he had less than 90 per cent blood flow to his legs.
Leach was taken into surgery at PRHC where the healthcare team put a stent in the blocked artery of his right leg to restore blood flow. After he had fully recovered from that procedure two months later, Leach had to return to PRHC for a second surgery where a medical balloon was inserted into an artery in his left leg.
While Leach says he had “complete and total confidence” in the surgeons and the rest of the team at PRHC and remained light-hearted and positive throughout both procedures, his wife was worried about the potential complications.
“Of course, it goes through your mind what happens if there are complications and they have to take the foot,” Leach admits. “No matter who you are, it’s going to play in the back of your mind. And it wasn’t just once — we went through it twice from two different operations.”
Even after the first surgery went smoothly, Leach and his family were still not at ease because they knew he would have to have a second surgery weeks later when he had recovered.
“It was the fact that I had to do this all over again,” he says. “I wasn’t thrilled because I’m worried again about complications, I’m worried about the recovery time, and I’m worried if I’m going to get an infection from this surgery that I didn’t get the first time.”
For Leach, having a cutting-edge hybrid OR at PRHC would have not only meant getting back to his regular life faster, but it also would have meant less anxiety for himself and his family.
“With a hybrid OR, you only have one stressful situation,” he says. “Everybody deals with it in their own way, but you only have one time to get stressed out. I had two critical surgeries, two stresses, and two recoveries.”
“When I heard that the Foundation was going to help create a hybrid OR, I was surprised that more hospitals actually don’t have them,” Leach says. “This advancement could save someone’s life or save their limbs. Anything could have happened while I was waiting in the transition from one surgery to the other.”
PRHC’s regional vascular program serves a population greater than 600,000 including patients from Peterborough City and County, City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, the Haliburton Highlands, and the region of Durham. With four surgeons performing more than 1,000 vital vascular surgeries in two dedicated operating rooms per year, they are serving patient volumes equivalent to six surgeons.
“Not only will a hybrid OR mean that an individual patient will face less time waiting for their urgent procedures, but more patients will be able to get their care sooner because of the overall reduction in OR time needed for those same procedures,” says Heighway. “Vascular disease is on the rise and it’s the leading cause of preventable death and disability in Canada. A hybrid OR will be essential to meeting our regional demand and keeping that care close to home.”
Prior to his vascular surgeries, Leach had received care in hospitals in Toronto and Oshawa but says the treatment at PRHC was unmatched. He is grateful there was somewhere close to home and work where he could get world-class health care.
“The hospital gives you back a quality of life,” he says. “I can now stand in the kitchen and cook and I can do woodworking if I want to. The hybrid OR would have made that happen even faster.”
Before receiving care from PRHC, Leach was unaware the government doesn’t fund equipment and technology for hospitals and just how essential community donors are to the regional hospital.
“If someone goes to the hospital and gets magnificent care, they can go home and spend time with their kids and grandkids and their quality of life can be extended,” he says. “Putting money into a donation for the hospital was an easy decision. I felt good knowing my contribution will go towards a hybrid OR and its years of helping lots of people.”
For her part, Heighway appreciates Leach’s enthusiastic support of the PRHC Foundation’s commitment to bring a hybrid OR to PRHC.
“Mike is a regional patient who has experienced firsthand what it’s like to have to travel to Toronto for care versus having world-class care closer to home at PRHC,” says Heighway. “He’s thankful for that exceptional care, but he also knows what it would have meant to have his multiple procedures done at once in a hybrid OR, and he wants that for the next person.”
“We’re grateful that he’s sharing his patient story and support of the Campaign for PRHC to inspire others and help them understand the difference their donation will make to patients like him and their loved ones.”
To learn more about bringing a hybrid operating room to PRHC and to make a donation, visit the PRHC Foundation website at prhcfoundation.ca or call 705-876-5000.
This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
