Winnipeg tech entrepreneur Ron Paley had triple bypass open-heart surgery in the I.H. Asper Institute at St. Boniface Hospital in April 2025.
January 29, 2026
Ron Paley is the definition of a grateful St. Boniface Hospital patient. In fact, one of his favourite things about his recent stay was the food he was served.
“The care I experienced at St. B was beyond good,” said the 81-year-old Winnipeg technology entrepreneur, who is now a committed monthly supporter of St. Boniface Hospital Foundation. “I also complimented the Food Services Kitchen and the staff who prepared my food – it was restaurant quality, it really was. My wife and I were amazed at the food I was given…it was too good to be true!”
Paley was a cardiac patient for about two weeks in the I.H. Asper Institute at St. Boniface Hospital, where he had triple bypass open-heart surgery in April 2025 to unblock his coronary arteries. His operation was going to be a double bypass, but Paley “got one more for free,” as he puts it with a laugh. “The care was first-class. The people there were phenomenal,” he added.
After an echocardiogram at St. B in 2024, his physician placed Paley in line for the surgery, adding him to nearly 47,000 patient visits made to the Hospital’s Cardiac Sciences program each year.
Kidney failure detected at pre-op
He almost didn’t make it to the surgery at all. At a pre-op appointment in late March 2025, his nurse, Diane, noticed a serious problem with his routine blood and urine test results.
“She said, ‘You’re in serious trouble, Ron. Your kidneys are about to fail.’ I couldn’t believe it,” he remembered. Medications Paley had been taking for his heart, and an unrelated prostate condition, had made it hard for him to pass urine, hurting his kidney function. “Diane was my angel. So, she told me I was not going home.”
He was rushed to the fifth floor of the Asper building, where he could be stabilized. On his first night there, his heart rate dropped to about 20 beats per minute, dangerously low.
“They called a Code Blue, cardiac arrest,” he said. “The alarm went off.” Paley doesn’t remember any of it, but his care team brought him back from the edge. With a catheter in place, his kidneys recovered to the point where the urologist cleared him for the bypass surgery only four days later.
“It was quite something. I just can’t tell enough people how effective the nurses and care team were. Everyone there was so positive, and I rebounded quickly,” said Paley.
Increased monthly gift
The staff who cared for Paley in the Asper building even offered him coffee with the meals he enjoyed so much. “They came by with a Keurig coffee maker, ‘Would you like one, Ron?’ I mean, my goodness,” he said. “They were gracious and caring, constantly.”
“I have never been in a facility where I didn’t meet so much as one grumpy person, in a bad mood or having a bad day. Not one in my two weeks there. Everyone who cared for me was friendly, helpful, and caring. It’s just an amazing organization, truly.”
Paley and his wife are dedicated monthly donors to the Foundation. They decided to double the amount of their monthly gift in October last year and gave a one-time gift of $500 in December to show their gratitude.
“It’s such a good cause,” said Paley. “I mean, the fact that the Hospital even accepted me at my age to have open-heart surgery. I’m 81 and, you know, it can feel like nobody really cares. People will say, ‘You’ve had a good life.’ But, wow, they’ve sure given me a second chance at life here.”
“I will keep supporting the I.H. Asper Institute and St. Boniface Hospital for as long as I live.”