Expanded Calgary facility for critically-ill newborns receives $10M donation

Katie Fraser says her daughter, Scarlett, weighed about the same as a block and a half of butter at birth.

At just 680 grams, Scarlett was born 16-weeks premature, and Fraser says one of her first thoughts was that a baby so small wouldn't be able to survive.

But five years later, Scarlett has not only survived, she's thriving, Fraser says. And she attributes much of her daughter's success to the staff at the neonatal intensive care unit at Foothills Medical Centre.

"Now, instead of being parents to a micro-preemie, we're parents of a pretty fantastic five-year-old girl who runs us in laps," Fraser said. 

She told her story at a ceremony Wednesday celebrating the final funds being raised for a renovated, two-storey NICU at the hospital with 58 beds for critically-ill newborns.

The Taylor Family Foundation contributed $10 million, completing a $66-million fundraising campaign led by the Calgary Health Foundation.

The upgraded facility will be named the Taylor Family Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

"We are thrilled to be a part of this campaign knowing that this contribution will have a meaningful impact for the future of families and their babies throughout southern Alberta," said Don Taylor of the Taylor Family Foundation in a news release.

Alberta Health Services and the Government of Alberta also committed funds to the project, which aimed to raise $152 million to transform care for newborns and their families in the province.

"This donation is going to impact families for decades to come, like ours. It will be immeasurable what you have done for our city and for the babies in this city," Fraser said.

The improved unit is much needed in southern Alberta, where one in eight babies is born critically ill or preterm, according to the Calgary Health Foundation. Nationally, that ratio is one in 10. Part of the funds gathered for the campaign will go toward further investigating the factors involved.

"We don't really understand what all the causes of preterm birth are in general," said Dr. Alixe Howlett, section chief for the Calgary zone of neonatology, in an interview on The Homestretch.

"I know we do have a high birth rate, and we know that 10 per cent of all babies will need some intensive care, whether it's for a few hours or up to a few months. So with a high birth rate, we are going to see more kids coming through our units."

Currently, the 38-bed NICU at Foothills Medical Centre sees the sickest babies and the most high-risk deliveries in southern Alberta. It's one of the busiest in Canada, Howlett says, and yet it's one of the smallest, about one-third smaller than comparable facilities across the country.