Stories
& news
that heals.
Mason and Brooke
Born at 27 weeks, Mason, now 4 years old, shows he's as strong as the foundation his parents have given him. Photo courtesy of Chopp Photography Mixed emotions overtake Brooke Vandal when she passes St. Boniface Hospital, as on one August day following a family photo...
Pillow Talk
Doug Wark has high praise for St. Boniface Hospital staff after open-heart surgery. As a bonus, now well into retirement, he learned something new about the company where he built a three-decade career. The Brandon resident, 73, underwent double bypass surgery and an...
From Nunavut With Love
The nurses in St. Boniface Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) called Cassandra Gordon’s baby “Wild Child”. He was a little fighter who wouldn’t give up – from birth, he showed everyone he wasn’t going to be defeated. Gordon and her baby, Kenneth, live with...
Realtor Gets Really Great Care
The business of everyday life isn’t cancelled this year – as Matthew Nicolas can tell you. Life goes on in the pandemic. Matthew knew this well, from his work as a Realtor with Royal LePage Dynamic Real Estate. Then, in early October, he became one of more than 13,000...
Coming Back From COVID
From a hero’s welcome home, to the lingering reminders of his battle with the virus, recovering COVID-19 patient Rick Sterzer is taking life in stride. Home is a peaceful cove in St. Vital, where all the neighbours know Sterzer and his wife Shannon Morden-Sterzer, and...
Lucky 13
First as a boy and all through junior, senior, and beer league hockey, Sean Barnes has worn number 13. So on July 30, as Barnes found himself in station 13 at St. Boniface Hospital's Bergen Cardiac Care Clinic for the insertion of a stent in his left anterior...
“Left untreated, I would die.”
A nasty case of pneumonia saved Dylan Hill’s life. At only 42 years old, Hill was fit and healthy. He had been in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves for five years, and passed the required physicals. He had even run a full marathon in 2007 without any obvious signs of...
There’s No Stopping Him
Dr. Lloyd Axworthy sat down on a bench in the Arrivals area of Winnipeg Richardson International Airport after disembarking. He was out of breath. “Maybe I’m getting old,” the veteran Canadian politician and humanitarian thought to himself. “Maybe it’s something...
Breath-taking complications, breath-saving comeback
From left: Ruben Enns, Jennifer Enns, and Kolby Enns; Wayne and Shirley Billeck; Scott Billeck and Krista Johnson Billeck, with dog Phoebe. Sports fans relish the comeback, the overtime thriller. Sometimes real life delivers similar drama. Cardiac patient Shirley...
A huge save
In hockey, if a goaltender has good form, the saves follow. It is equally true when it comes to saving a life. Just ask Rick St. Croix. One early morning last December, the developmental goaltending coach for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose suffered a heart attack and...
Baby’s Best Chance
Expecting her first child at 46 years old, Titilayo Olanlege faced a challenging pregnancy, with potentially dangerous complications. Her dream of motherhood started to look like a lonely, uphill battle. The Winnipeg woman was never truly alone, however – not with the...
Go with the flow
Looking at the brushwork and bright colours in Ludolf Grollé’s new “flow series” of seven paintings, you might be seeing one man’s experience of having a heart attack and his subsequent recovery. It’s really all up to you, said Grollé, who is a European-born,...