Latest news with #HeartInstitute
CTV News
11-08-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Local scientist named among Canada's most inspiring immigrants
Ottawa Watch A local Scientist at the Ottawa Heart Institute has been named one of the most inspiring immigrants in Canada.
Novaya Gazeta Europe
31-07-2025
- Health
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
‘We're transporting a heart, we're transporting a heart'. While Russia continues to maim and kill Ukrainian children, Ukrainian surgeons are going to unique lengths to operate on children under fire —
At 10am on 8 July 2024, the Russian army launched yet another air raid, firing about forty missiles of various types at Kyiv. The Russians probably fired on Kyiv that morning because they found their shelling the night before insufficient as not all military targets were hit. At 10:42am, one of the rockets hit the toxicology building of the Okhmatdyt National Children's Hospital, where dialysis was being performed. The blast blew out windows and doors, severely damaging the intensive care unit, operating theatres, the radiology department and the country's only oncohematology laboratory. Staff and parents managed to move most of the 627 patients, who ranged from newborns to teenagers, to a shelter before the attack, carrying them out in their arms or on gurneys, with IVs still attached. Media outlets published footage of rescuers, medics and ordinary citizens rummaging through the rubble as evacuated patients undergoing chemotherapy sat in the shade. However, the attack occurred before the evacuation was complete and unfortunately, 50 children, who were still in the building at the time of the raid, were injured from flying broken glass. A baby, who was in intensive care at the time of the attack, died later that same day, after being transported to another hospital in Kyiv. Two adults were also killed: a doctor and a hospital visitor. This was the first time in Todurov's experience that parents had given permission for a child's organs to be harvested and used as transplants. One year has now passed. Okhmatdyt has been restored but the war continues with increasing brutality. A year after the attack, in the early hours of 10 July, Kyiv was once again rocked by a record number of ballistic and drone strikes. Several people were killed, including a young policewoman and a Kyiv metro employee. Fires broke out on the streets, with several high-rise buildings damaged. That night, Director of the Heart Institute and renowned cardiac surgeon Borys Todurov drove across Kyiv with a donor's heart and a video of the organ transport was later posted on Facebook by journalist Violetta Kirtoka. Rescue workers scour the rubble of the Okhmatdyt children's hospital, struck by a Russian missile, Kyiv, Ukraine, 9 July 2024. Photo: Yevgeny Maloletka / AP Photo / Scanpix / LETA The video is like an action movie. Cars on fire and the wreckage of a downed drone are visible on the side of the road, while the driver repeats to himself: 'We are transporting a heart, we are transporting a heart'. There is also a video showing the organ transport arriving at the hospital, in which the unmistakable screeching of munitions overhead can be heard, while waiting for a small patient to arrive in the operating theatre. Kirtoka revealed more about the story in an article for the Censor blog. According to Todurov, who has been working with the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital for 'many years', he arrived at the children's hospital on 8 July to transport the heart of a four-year-old girl, who had died from a severe head injury. This was the first time in Todurov's experience that parents had given permission for a child's organs to be harvested and used as transplants. 'As we removed the heart, we heard explosions, and realised what was going on,' Todurov recalled. 'But did we have a choice? We couldn't just wait.' Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fourteen successful child heart transplants were performed in Ukraine during air raids As the surgeons worked, readying the heart for transport and transplant, a 12-year-old girl, who had already had surgery and had an artificial heart inserted as a temporary measure, was waiting. 'After we completed the operation, I got a call from my colleagues at Okhmatdyt. They told me a transplant was possible: the girl who died had the same blood type as our patient,' Todurov said. The heart transplant surgery was successful, and the girl is currently in intensive care, undergoing a difficult recovery stage, the doctor continued. 'But I hope everything will be fine,' he said. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fourteen successful child heart transplants were performed in Ukraine during air raids, in which donor organs cannot be transported via helicopter. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia has damaged or destroyed 769 medical institutions, according to data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.
CBC
19-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Heat and your heart: Researchers warn of hidden risks
As Ottawa and the surrounding region emerges from an extended summer heat wave, heart researchers say all that sultry weather can cause cardiovascular damage you might not be aware of. The latest heat wave lasted nearly a week with temperatures in the low 30s. With the humidity factored in, some days felt above 40. "Heat makes your heart work really hard. It puts stress on it," said Katey Rayner, vice-president of research and chief scientific officer at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. "If you already have a heart condition, that just means it's an added layer of stress." She said exposure to high temperatures can make it difficult to maintain blood flow to certain organs, and can cause a person's blood pressure and heart rate to rise. "It may put [your heart rate] into a dangerous level," Rayner warned. "But instead of being in a hospital where we're monitoring, people are at home and they're trying to stay healthy and trying to sort of stay active, but they might be inadvertently causing strain and stress on the heart." Hot, sticky summers Because of Ottawa's location in a major river valley, summers in and around the capital tend to be hot and sticky. "And that just means humidity makes it really hard for your body to cool down," Rayner said. "Your body tries to sweat and get rid of its excess fluid and cool itself, and it does that through sweating — and it really can't do that effectively when there's basically a layer of fluid sitting on top of your body." Staying in the shade provides little relief because "that humidity is just sitting on top of you," she said. Researchers at the Heart Institute are working with climate scientists to better understand the link between hot weather and heart health. Rayner said it's a complex problem because not everyone has the resources to keep cool, putting them at higher risk. "It's really easy to tell people to just stay in air conditioning, [but] that's not actually feasible for a lot of people, particularly in disadvantaged communities," she explained. Effects can be cumulative Researchers have also found that the health effects of extreme heat can be cumulative. "When we are exposed to heat, there's a lot that's changing in terms of our body's physiology because we're always under stress," said Glen Kenny, director of the human environmental physiology research unit at the University of Ottawa. "That strain on the body can be the result of gradual loss of body water, so dehydration that essentially is just going to strain the heart even more." Kenny warned people who use fans instead of air conditioning to keep cool could be endangering their health, especially when the temperature tops 33 C. "[A fan] makes you feel cool, but it does not reduce the temperature that you experience or the strain on the heart, and for that reason you may not recognize the danger you're experiencing when using an a fan in an overheated home," he said. Along with such pre-existing health conditions as Type 2 diabetes, kidney or cardiovascular disease, one of the biggest risk factors is age. Kenny said our ability to sweat diminishes by about five per cent per decade, raising our core body temperature and increasing our risk of heat-related injury. Kenny and Rayner both recommend avoiding exercise in extreme heat because it forces our core temperature up faster.
CTV News
11-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Ukrainian doctor drives a child's heart through Russian attack to perform a life-saving transplant
Kyiv was burning as Dr. Borys Todurov sped through the city in an ambulance, undeterred by the deep thuds of explosions and the terrifying sounds of Russian drones flying overhead. He was determined to deliver his precious cargo: a human heart. Todurov's patient – a child – was seriously ill in a hospital. He had hours to act. The child has been living with a heart disease for several years, but her condition deteriorated earlier this week and Todurov knew a new heart was her only chance. So when one became available from a child donor on the opposite side of the city, he didn't wait for the Russians to stop attacking. Russia has ramped up its aerial attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks. It fired more than 400 drones and 18 missiles, including eight ballistic and six cruise missiles overnight into Thursday. As the Ukrainian authorities called on people to hide in bomb shelters and basements, Todurov and his staff made the 10-mile drive from the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in western Kyiv to the city's Heart Institute on the eastern bank of the river while missiles and drones were flying around. While the Ukrainian Air Force managed to shoot down or disable the vast majority of the drones and missiles, two people were killed and dozens more injured in the attack on Thursday. 'The heart is working' Thursday's mass attack on Kyiv was just the latest in a deadly string of Russian assaults. Just the day before, Moscow launched more than 700 drones – a new record – against Ukraine on a single night. Todurov, the director of the Heart Institute, and his team worked non-stop throughout the two nights of attacks. After performing a heart surgery at the institute on Wednesday, he traveled across the city to Okhmatdyt where he removed the heart from the body of the donor. He then personally escorted the organ across the city. Crossing the Dnipro by a bridge is extremely dangerous during an attack on Kyiv, because vehicles are exposed and Ukrainian air defences target Russian drones and missiles when they are above the river to minimise the impact from falling debris. A video taken during the frantic drive shows a large fire burning near the road as Todurov drives on. 'We're carrying a heart,' he says calmly. The Russian attack on the capital was still underway when Todurov got into the operating theater at the Heart Institute, heading a large medical team and transplanting the heart into the body of his patient. In a stunning moment captured on camera and shared with CNN, the new heart is seen beating inside the patient's chest, just hours after it was driven through Kyiv as Russian drones and missiles rained down on the city. 'The heart is working, and the pressure is stable. We hope that … (the patient) will recover and live a long and full life,' the doctor said. The Ukrainian Transplant Coordination Centre said in a statement that the donor was a four-year-old girl who was declared brain-dead by a medical council after suffering serious injuries. The girl's mother, herself a medical worker, agreed to have her daughter's organs donated. And so, just as Todurov was transplanting the girl's heart into his patient's body at the Heart Institute, her kidneys were being transplanted to a 14-year-old boy and her liver to a 16-year-old girl, the center said. The two other patients were at the Okhmatdyt hospital, so no transport was required to get the organs to them. The coordination center said that two of the three recipients were in critical condition and had they not received the transplants, they would have just days or weeks to live. 'May the little donor rest in peace. Our condolences to her family and gratitude for their difficult but important decision,' the center said.
CNN
11-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Ukrainian doctor drives a child's heart through Russian attack to perform a life-saving transplant
Kyiv was burning as Dr. Borys Todurov sped through the city in an ambulance, undeterred by the deep thuds of explosions and the terrifying sounds of Russian drones flying overhead. He was determined to deliver his precious cargo: a human heart. Todurov's patient – a child – was seriously ill in a hospital. He had hours to act. The child has been living with a heart disease for several years, but her condition deteriorated earlier this week and Todurov knew a new heart was her only chance. So when one became available from a child donor on the opposite side of the city, he didn't wait for the Russians to stop attacking. Russia has ramped up its aerial attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks. It fired more than 400 drones and 18 missiles, including eight ballistic and six cruise missiles overnight into Thursday. As the Ukrainian authorities called on people to hide in bomb shelters and basements, Todurov and his staff made the 10-mile drive from the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in western Kyiv to the city's Heart Institute on the eastern bank of the river while missiles and drones were flying around. While the Ukrainian Air Force managed to shoot down or disable the vast majority of the drones and missiles, two people were killed and dozens more injured in the attack on Thursday. Thursday's mass attack on Kyiv was just the latest in a deadly string of Russian assaults. Just the day before, Moscow launched more than 700 drones – a new record – against Ukraine on a single night. Todurov, the director of the Heart Institute, and his team worked non-stop throughout the two nights of attacks. After performing a heart surgery at the institute on Wednesday, he traveled across the city to Okhmatdyt where he removed the heart from the body of the donor. He then personally escorted the organ across the city. Crossing the Dnipro by a bridge is extremely dangerous during an attack on Kyiv, because vehicles are exposed and Ukrainian air defences target Russian drones and missiles when they are above the river to minimise the impact from falling debris. A video taken during the frantic drive shows a large fire burning near the road as Todurov drives on. 'We're carrying a heart,' he says calmly. The Russian attack on the capital was still underway when Todurov got into the operating theater at the Heart Institute, heading a large medical team and transplanting the heart into the body of his patient. In a stunning moment captured on camera and shared with CNN, the new heart is seen beating inside the patient's chest, just hours after it was driven through Kyiv as Russian drones and missiles rained down on the city. 'The heart is working, and the pressure is stable. We hope that … (the patient) will recover and live a long and full life,' the doctor said. The Ukrainian Transplant Coordination Centre said in a statement that the donor was a four-year-old girl who was declared brain-dead by a medical council after suffering serious injuries. The girl's mother, herself a medical worker, agreed to have her daughter's organs donated. And so, just as Todurov was transplanting the girl's heart into his patient's body at the Heart Institute, her kidneys were being transplanted to a 14-year-old boy and her liver to a 16-year-old girl, the center said. The two other patients were at the Okhmatdyt hospital, so no transport was required to get the organs to them. The coordination center said that two of the three recipients were in critical condition and had they not received the transplants, they would have just days or weeks to live. 'May the little donor rest in peace. Our condolences to her family and gratitude for their difficult but important decision,' the center said.
