Seven years ago Dr. Robert Turnbull saw a need to develop a highly specialized team to offer patients with aneurysms a faster and less invasive treatment to repair the walls of their weakened arteries. In 2000, the Grey Nuns Edovascular Stent Graft Team was formed--the region's first and only centre for the specialized procedure that uses non-invasive techniques to insert a slender fabric tube where the artery is weakened. Getting the team established required old fashioned pioneering drive, out-of-the-box thinking, and commitment by radiologists, surgeons, anesthetists, technologists and nursing staff. In the first year, the team performed the life-saving procedure on 12 patients who had no other surgical options.
Despite the highly technical nature of the work, the multidisciplinary team develops warm, lasting relationships with many of the 100 patients they have treated--buoyed by their post-surgical success stories of family vacations, golf handicaps or grandchildren.
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