Montréal, May 13, 2019 — As part of the provincial hospital tour, the Opération Enfant Soleil team was in Montréal to award $4,530,602 to the two major pediatric centres in the region: CHU Sainte-Justine and the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

This event brought together numerous hosts of the Telethon, which will take place on June 2, including Annie Brocoli, Maxime Landry, many Enfant Soleil ambassadors and partners who are involved with the cause every year.

Thanks to all these warm-hearted people, Opération Enfant Soleil has thus far awarded 127 million dollars to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, CHU Sainte-Justine, and hospital centres and organizations in the Montréal area to provide the best health care and quality of life for children during hospitalization through the development of spaces conducive to their healing.

Radiography Room with Fully Automated Digital Technology at CHU Sainte-Justine
The new specialized units building at CHU Sainte-Justine has a special space to accommodate the cutting-edge equipment required for the continuous advancement of medical discoveries and the improvement of the healthcare provided to children. The $2,265,301 grant contributes in particular to the development of an emergency radiography room, which greatly improves the workflow of the medical imaging team while providing superior image quality.

“Doing good is at the heart of Opération Enfant Soleil’s mission. This mission appears in a myriad of ways every day at the CHU Sainte-Justine and allows us to offer cutting-edge pediatric medicine, better adapted to our young patients, in a context where humanism and warmth prevail,” mentioned Ms. Isabelle Demers, Associate Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CHU Sainte-Justine.

New Procedure Room at the Montreal Children’s Hospital
The projects and equipment financed by this $2,265,301 grant will help complete the development of various healthcare units, including the procedure room dedicated to carrying out many procedures, such as lumbar punctures, biopsies, and injections. Thanks to this room, various operations are centralized, and more young patients can benefit from healthcare quickly, if necessary. In addition, the room greatly contributes to humanizing the healthcare provided to children by—among other things—allowing parents to remain with their child during anaesthesia while significantly reducing their pain in a safe, comfortable space.

The grant awarded by Opération Enfant Soleil will also contribute to the well-being of many children suffering from deafness with the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) program. This will greatly improve the hearing of many children and even—for many of them—allow them to hear for the very first time.

“With the generous support of Opération Enfant Soleil, the Children’s can pursue its mission to heal, love and bond with our young patients, by reducing anxiety and speeding up their recovery. Thank you for making it possible for parents and children to spend less time at the hospital and more time with their families.”
-Martine Alfonso, Associate President and Executive Director, MUHC

The Enfants Soleil
The stories of the 17 Enfants Soleil from every region of Quebec will be presented during the Opération Enfant Soleil Telethon, which will be broadcast live on the TVA network on June 2 from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. from the Centre de foires d’ExpoCité in Québec City.

Théo, the little two-year-old ambassador from the Montréal region, is suffering from tuberous sclerosis complex, a genetic disorder characterized by the development of benign tumours in organs. At the age of just 18 months, Théo had already undergone three brain surgeries to reduce the excessively high number of daily epileptic seizures. His family is now awaiting a fourth operation: one of Théo’s brain lobes where the epileptic seizures originate will be removed.

About Opération Enfant Soleil
Opération Enfant Soleil raises funds to support the development of high-quality pediatrics for all sick children in Quebec. Thanks to the money raised, over a hundred projects are undertaken every year in hospitals and regional organizations, as well as major pediatric centres. Over 240 million dollars have been distributed throughout the province thanks to the generosity of thousands of Quebecers, the support of our volunteers, and the dedication of our partners. For more information, visit www.operationenfantsoleil.ca.

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Source
Samantha Munoz Comeau
Communications Consultant and Public Relations Manager
Opération Enfant Soleil
Cellphone: (581) 996-0622
scomeaumunoz@operationenfantsoleil.ca