London Health Sciences Centre has hit a milestone in its decades of providing care, research and education to the community.
With 150 years since the organization started, LHSC is celebrating its contributions to medical care and reflecting on the history of how it got this far.
(Credit: Dr. Christie Macdonald doing closing remarks at 150-Year Anniversary celebration, Naomi Ljunggren XFM News)
“As we celebrate today, we honour both our past and our present, and we look ahead to our future,” said Dr. Christie Macdonald, the Interim Vice Chair, LHSC Medical Advisory Committee, Department Head of Emergency Medicine, and Co-Executive Sponsor for LHSC.
“What we do here everyday, in care, teaching, and research, is built on the foundation laid over the past century and a half.”
LHSC opened its first hospital in 1875, London General Hospital, and later expanded into other areas such as a faculty of medicine, one of Canada’s first nursing schools, and a children’s hospital.
Today, LHSC operates University Hospital, Victoria Hospital, and the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario.
One long-term patient, Dave Gast, has spent over 70 years in health care with LHSC.
“I owe my life, in many ways, to Victoria Hospital and LHSC,” says Gast.
(Credit: Picture of Dave Gast, London Health Sciences Centre website)
“They have been instrumental in really treating me as they have millions of people with the greatest of health care, and I’m so grateful.”
Gast was just 11-years-old when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and brought to LHSC for treatment. He received more than 20 sessions of Cobalt-60 radiation treatments, otherwise known as the “Cobalt Bomb”, with London care teams being among the first in the world to treat patients with the technology in the 1950s.
Gast battled cancer several times later in life, including skin, prostate, lung and kidney cancers, undergoing a great deal of his cancer care at LHSC.
When asked about his journey with the hospital, Gast holds many memories.
“I enjoyed the experience as a patient kind of, bugging the nurses and riding my wheelchair a little too fast in the hallway,” Gast said.
He thanks the volunteers, support staff, and medical teams for their work in providing him treatment.
An exhibit for the 150-year anniversary can be seen at the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, housed within 100 Kellogg Lane.
The free self-guided tour places pictures, stories, and historic objects on display for the public to learn more about LHSC’s history.
