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Putting yourself in a family’s shoes
Posted on Tuesday, August 13, 2024 09:00 AM
Meet Chloe Soleimani, Service Planning Coordinator with Urgent Response Services
In February 2010, Chloe Soleimani took her first walk through CHEO’s pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) as she prepared to begin a new job as a clerk in the unit.
That day, and that role, changed her life.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today,” said Soleimani, who spent 10 years working in the PICU.
Her connection with CHEO doesn’t begin there. Soleimani arrived in Canada from Iran with her family in 1991 and she soon learned of...
“It’s OK. My mom works at CHEO. She’ll take really good care of you.”
Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 07:00 AM
Meet Michelle Vander Meer, Health Care Aide on Inpatient Surgery
Michelle first came to know CHEO through her older brother. Throughout his teen years, he had multiple surgeries and Michelle would come to visit him in hospital to brighten his day.
“I remember being a visitor and how kind everyone was to him and to me,” says Michelle. “It always stuck with me how the kindness of others could shine so much light during a dark time.”
Years later, in 2015, Michelle came to know CHEO in a different way...
“I knew I wanted to be the face that patients look at.” - Isabelle Moss
Posted on Tuesday, July 30, 2024 12:23 PM
Meet Isabelle Moss, Specialty Technologist in MRI
Isabelle was diagnosed with a Common Variable Immunodeficiency in 2011. From that moment on, she became part of the CHEO family. Her young adult life was shaped by regular visits to CHEO’s Medical Day Unit and by a life-changing bone marrow transplant at Montreal’s Sainte-Justine hospital in 2014.
“I started falling in love with the medical environment,” says Isabelle. “I knew I wanted to be the face that patients look at. I wanted to give them hope and put a...
CHEO gave 1st employee a sense of purpose, family says
Posted on Friday, July 26, 2024 09:00 AM
Barry Bickerton recalls the life-altering phone call to his mom Winnifred “Winnie” May Bickerton in 1969. That phone call would lead to Winnie being hired as the first employee of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (later changed to CHEO) as a bookkeeper.
Friends and family say she was on the ground floor working with the original CHEO Foundation president, H. Hall Popham, as they tried to raise money to build the children’s hospital.
Winnie was the “glue” and the main channel between the hospital and donors...
Alaa found her new community at CHEO
Posted on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 08:30 AM
Meet Alaa Abashar, Patient Experience Lead in the Emergency Department
“Growing up, I always knew I wanted to work with kids,” says Alaa. “I didn’t know how exactly, but I knew it was something I was meant to do.” In 2013, Alaa’s dream began to take shape. She moved from Abu Dhabi to Canada and started her bachelor’s degree in childhood and youth studies, with a minor in disability studies.
But moving to Ottawa and away from everything she knew was a culture shock for Alaa. Her first year of...