Our stories

Grateful family gifts CHEO tools to help kids rehabilitate

For CHEO staff, Arielle Roy and Kayla Dudas, a small step for their patients represents a major sign of progress.

Roy, an inpatient physiotherapist, and Dudas, an inpatient occupational therapist (OT), are members of a team that helps children admitted to CHEO who require physical rehabilitation. In one recent case, a three-year-old girl was admitted with a condition that left her immobile. She could no longer crawl—let alone walk.

Gradually, during several sessions lasting from one to two hours, the pair worked with the girl

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Mustafa, Arabic interpreter, helps newcomer families navigate CHEO

Meet Mustafa Tawfiq, Arabic Interpreter with the Patient Experience team

“Throughout my journey, I have been committed to gaining people’s trust and supporting them. I feel obliged to be a positive member of society,” says Mustafa. A dentist by trade, Mustafa immigrated to Canada from the Middle East in 2008. After several unsuccessful attempts to get accredited for dentistry in Canada, Mustafa pivoted.

Keen to help people and continue working in health care, he completed the bridging program for...

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'The Extensive Needs Service has transformed our lives'

How the most vulnerable children with urgent and complex needs in Ontario finally have access to a program that meets their health-care needs

Kairo, who was prone to self-injurious and eloping behaviours, can now go to the park with his mom and had his first visit with the dentist ever in his life at the age of five. ‘Jennifer,’ who had a significant needle phobia that put her health at risk, can now tolerate having her bloodwork done. Matthew faces many developmental complexities such as autism, ADHD

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CHEO’s 1st ICU patient led to lifelong connection to hospital

Ginette Boucher enters CHEO on a bright morning in late May where she spots her mom, Lucienne Markwell, as they meet up for a special tea date, and one can see her immediate childlike joy.

Ginette is a part of CHEO history. The 57-year-old was the hospital’s first patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) — after the family’s life changed forever on July 5, 1974.

Ginette, who often goes by “Ginnie,” was playing outside after dinner on a quiet street in Ottawa’s Overbrook neighbourhood when she was struck by an impaired...

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CHEO more than ready for ‘big shift’ in behaviour analysis profession

Applied behaviour analysts will be regulated health professionals in Ontario for the first time as of July 1, 2024, and CHEO is prepared for the change.

The new Psychology and Applied Behaviour Analysis Act brings the profession of “Behaviour Analyst” within the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario.

That means every behaviour analyst must register and satisfy certain conditions to practise in Ontario.

The move aims to protect families and children who require Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), a flexible,

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