SUDBURY, ON – A couple from Whitefish is donating $1-million to help buy life-saving equipment and provide support that will help Health Sciences North treat COVID-19 patients and beyond.

The donation to the Health Sciences North Foundation is being made by Craig Fielding and Katriina Ruotsalo. Their generosity will help buy a new ECMO Machine (Portable Heart-Lung Support System) that provides critical respiratory care for some of the most acute patients in HSN’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In patients with severe pneumonia and the flu, this machine is used to pump blood around a patient’s body until their own heart and lungs are strong enough.

SUDBURY, ON – Health Sciences North Foundation (HSNF) is very pleased to announce that $130,761 was raised during this year’s HSNF Golf for MRI at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club on July 11. Funds raised will support the purchase of new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners for Health Sciences North (HSN) and help ensure that patients have access to the most advanced medical imaging.

“We are very grateful to all of the HSNF Golf for MRI sponsors, donors and participants who contributed to another successful tournament. Their generous support makes a difference in the lives of people living in Northeastern Ontario who need an MRI,” said Dan Gray, HSNF Board Chair.

On April 6, 2016, my life as I knew it changed completely.

I’m Bill Crumplin and the picture that I am holding above is of my late wife, Donna Williams, who passed away on that April day.

Our journey began in November of the year before, and it wasn’t until after months of tests and biopsies that Donna received a diagnosis. You see, Donna lived with a cardiac disease that could have been detected earlier had she had access to a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Donna was scheduled to travel to Ottawa for such a scan, but was not healthy enough to make the trip. During her time in hospital, Donna pledged to raise the funds needed to support the purchase of the latest MRI for Health Sciences North to help others like her in our community.
Donna received her diagnosis on March 24, 2016. Sadly, Donna died just days later.
I am championing the fight to have the newest and most advanced imaging equipment available, right here at Health Sciences North. Perhaps you or someone you know have experienced wait times, had to endure biopsies or other tests necessary for a diagnosis, or had to travel to another community for an MRI. 

In Donna’s memory, friends and family have taken on her quest and established the Donna Williams MRI Fund at Health Sciences North Foundation. Please join us in helping to raise the $6.1 Million needed to purchase two new MRIs that will provide superior scans, significantly shorten wait times, reduce the travel burden and costs for patients, improve diagnostics and treatment, and offer cardiac MRIs closer to home.
Every dollar raised will remain in our community to support this vital purchase.

SUDBURY, ON – A Cochrane family, who for more than 70 years built up communities from Thunder Bay to Moosonee to New Liskeard, has made a historic investment in Northeastern Ontario’s healthcare. Marcel and Frances Labelle, pioneers of Canadian industry, announced a donation of $5 million towards HSN’s Innovation and Learning Centre. 

Marcel established M. J. Labelle Co Ltd at the height of the Great Depression and World War II. The business would become one of the most successful civil engineering companies in Northern Ontario, constructing hundreds of miles of highways, building quarries and hauling more than three million cords of wood from the bush. The company employed hundreds of people across the north, bringing sewers, water mains and airstrips to dozens of northern communities through new construction projects.

“Marcel and Frances are proud to support the Innovation and Learning Centre which will ensure that northerners will be among the first to benefit from breakthrough techniques and treatment methods learned on site,” said Ehor Bobby, Director for the Marcel and Frances Labelle Foundation, as well as a long-time friend and associate. “They are particularly proud that doctors and other health care professionals will be trained here in the north.” With this gift, Marcel and Frances are hoping to inspire others to follow their lead and support healthcare in our region.

“In recognition of Marcel and Frances Labelle’s leadership, generosity, and dedication to learning, the HSN Board of Directors is proud to announce the naming of the Labelle Innovation and Learning Centre,” said HSN Board Chair Nicole Everest. She added this donation will help HSN in its mandate as the tertiary care centre for the region, while closing the gaps in the health care system in Northeastern Ontario. “This allows us to be even better positioned to recruit and retain some of the top talent in Canada, to care for the people of the north.”

By the time Jean Boyle met Dr. Gopalakrishnan in May 2018 he already had a treatment plan in place. 

“He told me that we did not have any days to spare, that every day was critical to my treatment plan,” says Jean. “I instantly knew that having him as my Doctor was a very rare and special gift.”

Even when he was not at the clinic, Dr. Gopalakrishnan kept himself fully informed on Jean’s treatment. “I could always count on him to keep me up to date on my progress, what the next steps would be and what to expect,” says Jean.  “His expertise, passion and dedication to his patients, his caregivers, his co-workers and the medical profession are what makes him an exceptional doctor.”

 “Thank you, Dr. Gopalakrishnan for being my STAR!”  says Jean. “You are one in a million.”

Have you or a loved one been a patient of Health Sciences North and wished that you could thank that special physician, nurse, paramedic, volunteer or staff member who helped to make your stay or visit a little better?

HSN Foundation and The Sudbury Star have partnered to help you say “Thank you” to those special people with the STAR, or Special Thanks and Recognition program.

To purchase your STAR, contact Health Sciences North Foundation at 705-523-7130 or click here