Surgeon remembered for 'quality patient care'

Dr. George Rutherford Walker, a general surgeon who practised medicine in Sudbury between 1950 and 1990, was the “driving force” behind bringing a team of world-class cardiac surgeons to the city, according to Joan Babij, who served on Memorial Hospital's board of governors in the 1980s and 1990s.

This surgical team included Dr. Paul Field, who performed Canada's first successful coronary artery bypass surgery at Memorial Hospital in 1968.

“That was difficult to do, bringing people of Dr. Field's stature to Sudbury,” Babij said, speaking to Northern Life after a plaque was unveiled in the hospital's cardiac care unit May 15.“They would gravitate to the bigger centres.”

Health Sciences North named its cardiac care services in honour of Dr. Walker and Memorial Hospital. Walker, who passed away a few years ago, is remembered by Babij as an “excellent man, and an excellent member of the community.”

“He had been a surgeon in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War,” she said.

“When you looked at him sitting across the board table, you'd never have thought he was a Second World War veteran. He was still slim, trim and alert, and very active. His mind was just as sharp as it ever had been.”

An $8.5-million bequest by Memorial Hospital to the new hospital's cardiac care unit was another reason behind the cardiac care services' new name.

“Over the years, the foundation at Memorial ... had raised significant money for the cardiac care unit,” Babij explained.

“When the ministry ordered the merger, there was a provision that said if significant assets had been paid for by community funds, that the government would consider giving us the depreciated value of those assets.

“We went through our records and compiled everything that had been donated through the foundation, and we came up with a depreciated value. It was in excess of $8.5 million. We submitted all this to the government, and eventually they agreed that was valid, and they gave us a cheque for that money.”

These funds were earmarked for cardiac equipment for the new one-site hospital, she said.

“We could have asked for a tower to be named after us because of the size of the donation, but we felt this was more appropriate,” Babij said. “This is where our expertise was, this is where our recognition was nationally.”

Joe Pilon, Health Sciences North's senior vice-president, said the donation from Memorial was used to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for the cardiac care unit at the new hospital, which opened two years ago. Lives have been saved because of this equipment, he said.

“We were able to use a lot of money to buy technology,” Pilon said. “We've got cardiac care labs and two nuclear medicine cameras solely dedicated to cardiac diagnostics. It really did allow us to advance cardiac care here in northeastern Ontario.”

Walker deserves to have his name on the wall in the hospital's cardiac care unit, because he was a great leader who advanced cardiac care in the city, Pilon said.

“He was so committed to giving great quality patient care,” he said.

Posted by Arron Pickard