Helping families through tough times
By Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA
Hello Chestermere-Strathmore readers. I wanted to share a personal story with you this week. As with all families, we go through our ups and downs, and I find myself in that intersection where many of us are helping our parents. As we become caregivers, we require exceptional amounts of the grace, love, and compassion. My mom is a rockstar and has been a caregiver for over 22 years. My mom has done so much to keep her family healthy, from my grandma to my sister, who passed away on Dec. 22. This last week my parents endured a bad bout of COVID, my father fell badly, and he is also potentially losing a toe due to his diabetes. Even with all of that, the smiles and resilience of these two are remarkable, and the doctors, nurses, specialists, and all involved are quite frankly amazing. We are so lucky to have our healthcare system; the much-needed improvements will improve our system if we are willing to do that work together. I wanted to highlight The Limb Preservation Centre at the Peter Lougheed hospital, which opened to patients in October 2016 and now provides care to approximately 8,000 patients annually. This clinic is funded through Alberta Health Care and incredibly generous donations. A portion of funds raised purchased state-of-the-art technology that helps with the early detection and assessment of vascular issues, a major risk factor in limb loss. My father has benefited from this technology and has had minor amputations versus losing his foot because of these talented doctors.
On their website, “the Centre continues to be active in multiple research initiatives to improve care further. After a career in Podiatric Surgery in Alberta, Dr. Mark Zivot left the practice several years ago. However, he has maintained close contact with his Podiatric colleagues, watching the program grow to meet patient needs.”
“Philanthropy has played an important part in my life, and I wanted to provide a substantial donation with direct purpose and passion. Not just a gift of dollars, but a gift of my knowledge, experience, and time,” Dr. Zivot explains. “The naming of the Zivot Limb Preservation Center is a great honour, and I am most gracious for the opportunity to give back to health care.”
This Centre is now regarded as a centre of excellence showing that lower extremity amputation rate in the Calgary Zone has been reduced by 45 per cent. There has been a 30 per cent reduction in hospitalizations and a reduced length of stay for diabetes related foot complication. The savings to Alberta Health are currently $19M per year.
As a daughter who has watched my dad go through this, I want to thank Dr Zivot, Dr. Manji, Dr. Harton and the nurses, specialists and staff of the Zivot Limb Preservation Centre, my dad’s family doctor, and the emergency doctor – Dr. Bhardwaj, and Nurse Lauren who stitched him up after he fell. I wanted to share this with all of you because advocacy from family and community are key in our healthcare outcomes, mental health outcomes, and honestly investigates our institutions as to where we are successful as much as where we are failing. I write this not as a politician, but as a family member, a member of the community, and hopefully as a friend to many of you, so that we can talk about these things and find solutions. The doctors that do limb preservation are some of the best people I have met, and their value cannot be underestimated. Please take good care of yourself.
As always, we love to hear from you.
(Leela Sharon Aheer is the MLA Elect for Chestermere-Strathmore)