Civic hospital seeking stories for its 100th birthday

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The Ottawa Hospital is inviting members of the public to help celebrate the Civic hospital’s 100^th birthday through stories and pictures.

The Civic hospital, now one of the campuses of The Ottawa Hospital, opened its doors on Nov. 27, 1924. Officials are hoping the milestone is a time for members of the community, along with current and former staff, to share their stories about the hospital.

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The hospital has launched a website with historic photos, a timeline and stories about the Civic hospital at 100moments.ca. Public contributions will be a big part of the story, said Dr. Virginia Roth, who is chief of staff at The Ottawa Hospital.

“Many members of the community have been touched by the hospitals and have personal stories,” she said. Those might include people who were born there, who worked there or had significant events in their lives that involved the hospital on Carling and Parkdale avenues.

When the Civic opened in 1924, it was a hospital for the city’s west end. That was four years before the discovery of penicillin and there was no insulin to treat diabetes. It was also a time when there were no vaccines to protect against common childhood infections including measles, mumps and chicken pox. The only readily available vaccine was for smallpox, said Roth.

“We have come a long way.”

Among the hospital’s most notable historic events was the birth of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands after the Dutch royal family had taken refuge in Ottawa during the Second World War. To ensure the newborn princess would hold exclusively Dutch nationality, the Canadian government temporarily declared the room where she was born extraterritorial — meaning outside Canadian jurisdiction.

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As a thank you, the Dutch royal family continues to send tulip bulbs every year, some of which are planted in Commissioners Park, the site of Ottawa’s annual tulip festival, which wrapped up last weekend. This year, to mark the 100th birthday of the hospital, Princess Margriet also sent 100 bouquets of tulips to its staff members as a thank you.

Roth said the hospital wants the 100^th birthday celebration “to be a community affair.”

The celebration comes as work is underway on the first phase of a new Civic hospital to be built on Prince of Wales near Dow’s Lake. Work has begun on a parking garage to serve the hospital, across from Dow’s Lake.

Roth said the new hospital will be home to the kind of technological and medical advances that will make people look back in amazement at current technology 100 years from now.

The more extensive use of artificial intelligence, robotics and genomics that can personalize treatments will help change the way medicine is being done and make it much more targeted to individuals, she said.

“I think 100 years from now (medicine) will be a completely different practice.”

Stories and photos of the Civic can be sent to the hospital through its special 100th birthday website: 100moments.ca

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