SASKATOON – A $2 million donation from Walter and Margaret McNabb is paving the way for major advances in the delivery of life-saving cardiac care procedures at Royal University Hospital (RUH).
Their gift to Royal University Hospital Foundation will support a $3 million equipment upgrade and renovation to the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab and its aging and outdated second unit.
The Cath Lab, which opened in 2012, includes medical imaging and x-ray equipment that allows cardiologists to see inside the heart and perform minimally invasive procedures, like stents, to treat clogged arteries to reduce and prevent heart attacks. More than 3,200 life-saving procedures were done last year in the Cath Lab.
“Walter and Margaret’s generosity, and that from other donors, will enable us to do life-saving procedures with more precision and that are safer for both patients and our medical teams,” says cardiologist and Cath Lab Medical Director Dr. Jason Orvold. “This support will also help us to reduce wait times for current procedures, provide new treatment options, and assist in the recruitment and retention of the next generation of cardiologists at RUH.”
When the upgrade to the Cath Lab is completed later this year, it will be known as the Walter and Margaret McNabb Catheterization Lab in recognition of the couple’s $2 million donation in support of the project.
“We are extremely thankful for Walter and Margaret’s generosity in helping advance patient care excellence and innovation in the Cath Lab,” says RUH Foundation CEO, Jennifer Molloy. “Donor support is instrumental in keeping RUH’s medical teams at the forefront of modern medicine in our province and helping to save more lives of patients requiring the most complex of cardiac care in Saskatchewan.”
Walter and Margaret’s gift completes the first of two major fundraising initiatives by RUH Foundation in support of minimally invasive cardiac care at RUH. A second fundraising project is currently underway to raise $4 million for much-needed upgrades to RUH’s Electrophysiology (EP) Lab which also opened in 2012. The EP Lab is where patients are treated for life-threatening abnormal electrical signals that cause the heart to beat too fast or too slow.
Not only is the EP Lab aging, but the need for life-saving procedures to address conditions like atrial fibrillation and sudden cardiac arrest is increasing. Three to four treatments involving pacemakers, defibrillators and catheter ablation procedures are performed in the EP Lab every day.
To donate and to learn more about RUH’s Cath and EP Labs, please visit or call RUH Foundation office at 306-655-1984.
