Did you know that world-renowned photographer, Malak Karsh, was the one to first suggest creating the Tulip Festival, which has now been running since 1953?

The festival’s main site is just down the street from the Civic Campus, and in this photo, taken by none other than Malak Karsh, you can see Civic nurses strolling past the tulips.

These flowers celebrate the memorable role of the Canadian troops in the liberation of the Netherlands and commemorates the birth of Dutch Princess Margriet in Ottawa during the Second World War. If you missed it, check out Moment #37 which contains a special video message from her Highness!

On March 7, 2011, The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic Campus succeeded in saving the life of 28-year-old Kimberly Mountain after the discovery of a cancerous tumour in her brain.

Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Charles Agbi, would keep her awake during the five-hour operation to remove as much of the tumour as possible.

The procedure, which was far less common back then, allows surgeons to speak with their patient throughout the surgery. As a result, they can better ensure the correct area of the brain is being treated, thereby avoiding impact to the areas that control vision, movement, and/or speech. By keeping Kimberly conscious, the medical team could ask her to move certain body parts and to speak … or even sing!

In fact, during the operation, Kimberly shared with the surgical team her ideal vacation destinations — Disney World and Hawaii — and even sang the Lion King classic Hakuna Matata, which is a Swahili phrase that captures a “problem free” attitude.

Such transformational care, through advances in technology, have also allowed surgeons to perform fluorescence-guided surgery. It uses fluorescence imaging to light up cancerous tissue, allowing surgeons to completely remove tumours in patients.

Kimberly’s surgery was followed by radiation and chemotherapy treatments to kill her remaining cancer. Less than a year after her initial diagnosis, Kimberly was declared cancer free. “Even if the cancer does come back, I am confident that The Ottawa Hospital will be able to save me again, thanks to its constant innovative research and clinical trials that are making treatment better and saving lives,” said Kimberly.

For many patients and families, spiritual practices can help manage the stress of time spent in hospital. During smudging ceremonies, participants burn traditional, medicinal plants and waft the smoke over parts of the body as a spiritually cleansing ritual. It is a part of some, but not all, Indigenous cultures in Canada, and is practiced differently by different communities. It may be part of a patient’s everyday spiritual practices. Patients may also smudge when someone is born, when someone dies, or during a crisis.

In recognition of the importance of spiritual practices for healing, in 2018, The Ottawa Hospital implemented a program to accommodate smudging ceremonies for Indigenous patients and families. Although not a traditional ceremony of the Inuit people, some have adopted the practice and may also request a smudging ceremony.

Patients can request a smudging ceremony at any point, and the hospital provides designated indoor areas, patient rooms (in special circumstances), or outdoor spaces for the ceremony. The hospital can provide medicines for smudging — sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and tobacco — and liquid smudge when smoke cannot be used. Spiritual Care staff and a patient’s care team coordinate smudging requests and ensure all safety protocols are followed to prevent smoke and scent from impacting others.

If you’ve ever wondered why Ottawa has so many tulips, the answer involves a World War, a Royal family, and the chief of obstetrics at what was then the Ottawa Civic Hospital. 

Watch this special video message from her Royal Highness, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, about why the Civic holds a special place in her heart.

Thirty-two young women, most of them pictured here from 1925, are the first graduates of the Ottawa Civic Hospital School of Nursing. Only single women “in good health with a robust constitution” were admitted to the red-brick nurses’ residence at 737 Parkdale Avenue, until 1969 when the rules changed, allowing married women into the program. According to archival information, life at the school was demanding and highly regimented. “Smoking, alcohol, and bobbed hair were forbidden.”  

Ottawa philanthropist and community-builder Jean Teron proudly wears her mother’s 1924 nursing pin, given to 20-year-old Ida Catherine McDowell when she graduated from the program nearly a century ago. Jean’s sister Katherine also graduated from the Civic Hospital School of Nursing.   

“My mother’s hand scratching in her biography says that she was so happy at the Civic to receive a mark of 100 on her medical nursing exam,” says Jean. “My mother says she did really well as an A1 nurse, whatever that is, despite the long hours and very little pay.” Jean says her mother and best friend Jean Forbes were the first Civic graduates to go on to higher education, studying Public Health Nursing at McGill.  

By the time the School of Nursing closed in 1973, more than 4,000 graduates had made the symbolic walk down the front steps of the Civic Hospital, marking the start of their nursing career.