World-class equipment for world-class surgical teams
Surgical teams at the Stollery Children’s Hospital have the expertise needed to perform operations on an incredible array of patients: from babies the size of a cellphone to teens weighing as much as an adult. Their world-class skills require equipment that can meet the unique challenges of pediatric care.
Thanks to donors like you, surgical teams in the Stollery ENT (ear, nose and throat) operating theatre have the latest equipment to preserve nerve function for young patients during procedures and ensure their quality of life after surgery.
Last year, you helped fund the latest NIM Vital Nerve Monitoring System, which is now being used to monitor both the facial nerve and vagus nerve in real time during procedures such as cochlear implant surgery.
Dr. Trina Rosaasen, ENT surgeon at the Stollery, performs up to 35 cochlear implant procedures each year using the NIM system.
“This is the standard of care. Without this machine and without something like this to monitor the status of the facial nerve, it would not be safe to proceed,” says Dr. Rosaasen. “It is essential for the care of the children that we have appropriate equipment, and a lot of that comes from the gracious donors of the Foundation.”
One of Dr. Rosaasen’s patients who has benefited from the NIM is Elizabeth (pictured below). At only a few weeks old, Elizabeth was diagnosed with moderate to severe unilateral sensorial neural hearing loss. As she got older, her hearing loss progressed to profound loss – put simply, Elizabeth could not hear out of her left ear.
In January of 2023, Elizabeth’s parents met with Dr. Rosaasen, who shared that cochlear implants for unilateral hearing loss had been approved by the province of Alberta. By September of that year, Elizabeth was scheduled in for surgery.
Like many parents, one of their biggest concerns when it came time for the surgery was the potential for complications; in this case, the possibility of facial paralysis, which could affect Elizabeth’s ability to blink, speak, swallow and eat. When they brought this concern to Dr. Rosaasen, they were reassured by the advanced equipment being used at the Stollery.
Elizabeth’s surgery was successful, and three weeks after, her cochlear implant was activated. Her mom’s voice was the first sound Elizabeth heard with her implant. Since then, Elizabeth’s speech ability has taken off and a love of reading has been ignited. “She’s far beyond her peers, far beyond kids significantly older than her who have typical hearing. Her speech development has been incredible,” says Laura, Elizabeth’s mom.
Now three years old, Elizabeth is thriving thanks to the world-class care at the Stollery.