How Dr. Alexandra Bastiany’s journey – from Montreal to Thunder Bay to Surrey – reflects a community’s fight for accessible cardiac care close to home.
Bringing cardiac care closer to home in Surrey
This story begins the way many love letters do – with recognition. Recognition of a place that leaves a mark, and of the people who shape it.
For Surrey, bringing the cardiac catheterization labs south of the Fraser represented the culmination of years of advocacy, persistence, and the voices that spoke up for the care they knew they rightfully deserved.
When the cardiac catheterization suites opened at Surrey Memorial Hospital, the milestone belonged to everyone who helped make it possible. Inside the hospital, however, the focus quickly shifted forward. For the teams now delivering this care, the work was just beginning. They were ready.
Meeting Dr. Alexandra Bastiany
One of those physicians is Dr. Alexandra Bastiany, the first black female interventional cardiologist in Canada whose path to Surrey was shaped as much by lived experience as by medical training. When we spoke with Dr. Bastiany, she was quick to shift the focus away from herself and back to the people around her, her team, and the patients they care for every day.
“It’s going really well,” she says of the new cath labs. “We’re on target, we’ve already done over 200 cases, and honestly the team is incredible. The nurses, the staff, the atmosphere. We’ve got a really strong team vibe.”
That sense of collective responsibility is something she returns to repeatedly. In her experience, it’s what makes high-quality care possible.
A team built on heart, respect and trust
“This program is unique: everyone truly has each other’s backs,” she says. “Everyone brings their expertise, everyone helps each other. From the physicians and nurses to the cleaning staff. Everyone is a part of the team. There’s so much respect.
For Dr. Bastiany, that culture matters because of how she practices medicine. She describes herself as someone who needs connection. Not just with colleagues, but with patients.
“I like to sit down, put my pen down, and talk,” she explains. “I specialize in taking care of the heart, but patients are more than just their heart. They’re people with stories, families, lives. That connection really matters.”
That philosophy is rooted in her own upbringing.
Access to care: From Saint-Michel to Surrey
Dr. Bastiany grew up in Saint-Michel, a neighbourhood in east-end Montreal that she describes as historically underserved. Access to advanced medical care wasn’t a given. Specialist services often meant leaving the neighbourhood and navigating an overburdened system.
“We didn’t have hospitals like this,” she says. “If you needed specialized care, you had to leave your community. Local clinics were overwhelmed. I remember wishing we had a quality hospital where my people could get the care they needed.”
That memory stayed with her and it’s one of the reasons Surrey resonated so deeply when she arrived.
Surrey, like Saint-Michel, represents a vibrant and diverse community. For years, patients needing urgent cardiac procedures had to travel outside the city for care. For Dr. Bastiany, helping change that reality feels personal.
“Surrey reminds me so much of where I grew up,” she says. “It’s a community that deserves access to high-quality care close to home. Being part of bringing that here means everything to me.”
Lessons from Thunder Bay that shaped her practice
Before coming to Surrey Memorial Hospital, Dr. Bastiany spent five years practicing in Thunder Bay, Ontario. An experience she describes as both beautiful and formative.
“Being surrounded by Lake Superior and the mountains is something I would repeat in every lifetime,” she says. “But it was also challenging. We had a standalone cath lab, and if a patient needed surgery, they had to be flown hours away.”
Working within those limitations shaped her approach to care.
“It pushed me to adapt. It made me the physician I am today, and honestly, the person I am today.”
From coast to coast, rooted in purpose
When the time came to move west, she didn’t take the decision lightly. In fact, she crossed the country by car, carrying with her a symbol of continuity and growth. A money tree she bought during her first grocery run in Thunder Bay.
“It was the first plant I ever owned,” she laughs. “It just kept growing. I named her Cardi. I couldn’t leave her behind, so I drove across the country.”
The journey took five days, through the Rockies and across landscapes she had never seen before. It felt like a transition, not just geographically, but personally.
Today, Dr. Bastiany says Surrey feels like a rare and meaningful intersection of nature and city, of familiarity and possibility.
“I can sail one day and ski the next,” she says. “The mountains, the water, the mix of old and new. It reminds me of my past in Montreal and Thunder Bay at the same time. It makes me feel at home.”
To the people of Surrey, with love
Her sense of responsibility to community extends beyond the hospital walls. Dr. Bastiany is passionate about education, advocacy, and reaching people where they are. Particularly, communities that are often underrepresented in conversations about heart health.
“There’s so much more to medicine than science,” she says. “We’re taking care of people, families, histories. If we don’t talk about that, if we don’t meet people where they are, we’re missing something.”
That belief aligns closely with what this moment represents for the people of Surrey and the South Fraser.
With donor support helping make the cardiac cath labs possible, Dr. Bastiany is clear that this achievement belongs to the community.
“Knowing how hard people fought for this, advocated, showed up, didn’t give up. That means everything to me,” she says. “It makes me more loyal to this work and to this city. Because the people that walk through these hospital doors, they deserve this care.”
