Children’s Health

Dorothy Grant and her husband Bill were devastated when their 11-year-old son David passed away as a result of a rare neurological disease. But today, almost 35 years later, David’s memory lives on at the IWK because of a legacy gift the Grant’s made in his honour.

The Child Life team at the IWK is made of Child Life specialists, a therapeutic clown named Buddington, and a music therapist who aim to make a patient’s experience at the IWK less stressful.

Katherine Simpson was born at 32 and a half weeks gestation via C-section at the IWK. Immediately upon birth the care team recognized several abnormalities in her – Katherine had one ear different than the other, her chin was small and she had 12 toes.

In September, 2016, then six-year old Cooper Thornton was diagnosed with a brain tumour at his local hospital in Fredericton, NB. Two days later his family travelled from their home to the IWK where Cooper was admitted.

In March 2017, Jayda - an athletic and active then eleven-year-old - became ill with a fever and started vomiting. The next day when she began wheezing, Jayda’s parents, Lisa and Brent, rushed her to the IWK emergency department.