Keeping Canada Alive

A three-month-old baby boy in Vancouver gets a hole in his heart patched during open-heart surgery, while his parents wait anxiously for news. In Toronto, a 28-year-old veteran whose neck was broken during a rec hockey game works hard to defy the statistics and walk again; and a teenage girl goes hopefully into a laser treatment for the severe burn scars that have shaped her identity. Meanwhile, an 85-year-old in Charlottetown is rushed to hospital by paramedics who fear he has suffered a mini-stroke. In a Labrador clinic with no on-site doctor, a dedicated nurse gives a checkup with help from an unconventional high-tech assistant, Rosie the Robot. And in Calgary, a brave 73-year-old woman navigates through grief, pragmatism, and hope as she lovingly cares for her husband with Alzheimer’s disease.

The non-stop day of a warm-hearted, full-service North Vancouver GP takes her from hospital to office to home visits. A Toronto cardiologist works hard to find options for one of the 50,000 Canadians diagnosed this year with heart failure. In Winnipeg, a woman with MS finds out whether her shoulder pain signals the progression of her disease. Nova Scotia’s busiest ER admits a man suffering head lacerations after a car accident. Two Ottawa children receive respite care as their families cope with the challenges of raising a child with a complex illness. And a Vancouver family waits nervously as their 25-year-old son has his second heart surgery in six years.

In Vancouver, an unconventional palliative care doctor helps a terminal cancer patient make one of the biggest decisions of her life. In St. Catharines, a teenager in the process of transitioning from male to female brings her mother to a checkup with her doctor. A Montreal man with a recurring brain tumour has surgery for a fourth time, this time with the aid of his surgeon’s innovative new technology. A Hamilton teen suffering chronic pain has a long-awaited second operation to fix the damaged cartilage in her hip. In Yellowknife, an ER physician treats a man with troubling symptoms who's been flown in from a remote community. And an excited six-year-old receives a new prosthetic arm in Toronto.

With her best friend and two dynamic surgeons by her side, an Ottawa cancer patient undergoes the removal and reconstruction of her remaining breast. A Montreal psychiatrist administers electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to a patient with debilitating depression and counsels a woman with psychosis. A doctor in St. John’s examines a long-time patient whose aggressive skin cancer has required major facial reconstruction. In Vancouver, a doctor tends to an immigrant family from Iraq whose elderly mother is suffering from PTSD. A First Nations man who lost part of his foot because of diabetes places hopes for a fuller recovery in a visiting healer in Fort Qu’Appelle. And two years after a heartbreaking stillbirth, a young Kamloops mother faces her fears as she prepares to deliver another baby in the same ward.

During a double surgery in Vancouver, a daughter donates her kidney to her 81-year-old father. Elsewhere in Vancouver, two heroin addicts visit a groundbreaking Downtown Eastside clinic to receive daily injections of prescription heroin. In Toronto, a deaf baby gets her cochlear implant activated and hears her mother’s voice for the first time, while a passionate family doctor practices innovative ways to deliver healthcare to homebound patients. A Hamilton woman with metastasized colon cancer gets a pinpoint-accurate radiation treatment from a high-tech robot. And in the midst of a spring snowstorm, a new baby is delivered by C-section in one of the busiest maternity wards in Edmonton.

A single mother in Hamilton, whose premature baby was born at only 26 weeks gestation, waits alone as doctors prepare her tiny son for surgery. A former Richmond high school athlete who weighs almost 400 pounds hopes to change his life with bariatric surgery to reduce his stomach size. In Quebec’s far north, a Cree doctor wages her own battle against Canada’s First Nations diabetes epidemic. A profoundly disabled young woman in Wolfville finds ways to live her day to the fullest. And in Vancouver, man’s best friend participates in a clinical trial to detect a life-threatening superbug, while a woman fearing heart failure checks into Emergency.