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The Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital is quickly approaching its first anniversary.
A new statue was unveiled to mark the occasion by special guests like Health Minister Jim Reiter and namesake donor Jim Pattison on Thursday.
The monument created by artist Ryan Kurylo is called “The Trumpeteer,” a bronze statue of a young boy pointing his trumpet skyward as he plays a note, pays tribute to Pattison, the Canadian billionaire born in Saskatoon who donated $50 million to the hospital.
Pattison’s first summer job was playing the trumpet at a children’s church camp.
“I’m very pleased to be included,” Pattison said during his brief return trip to the province. “A lot of people have done a lot of work to help have this beautiful building here. I appreciate being invited and I am very happy to be here.”
Brynn Boback-Lane, the president and CEO of Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation, is celebrating that hard work and determination by countless people in the province to see the province’s first children’s hospital approach its first anniversary.
“Dreams do come true,” Boback-Lane said before speaking directly to children in the province. “Never stop dreaming, never stop looking towards what your ambitions are because this is proof positive that when you believe in something (and) you work hard for something it will happen.”
The first patients were welcomed into the new hospital on Sept. 29, 2019. Between then and June 30, 2020, the new pediatric emergency department had more than 15,100 visitors, more than 2,300 surgeries were performed and more than 14,700 visits were reported by pediatric out-patient teams.
“It’s been remarkably heroic of everybody that has stepped up to the plate, and we’re celebrating them today as well as the one year anniversary,” Boback-Lane said of the healthcare providers working in the hospital daily.
“What happens within the walls of the children’s hospital is vitally important to the healthcare of our children and our families.”
Like Boback-Lane, Reiter fondly remembers the celebration last fall to open the hospital.
“It’s hard to believe a year has passed. We look back on these last six months and what’s happened where COVID has kind of taken over healthcare, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that many, many people have already been treated in this hospital,” Reiter said.
Soon after the hospital opened a nearly 600 item task list piled up. The tasks ranged from safety concerns to moving monitors or desks. Reiter said that list is nearly complete.
Now, the attention turns towards the future and the potential of the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital.
“The opportunities within this children’s hospital are endless in terms of both healthcare and the activities like art, and music and literacy programs that are taking place within,” Boback-Lane said.