As a mom of two young children, Leanne was used to coughs.
Daycare, changing seasons and childhood bugs meant they were hardly unusual. But one morning, something about her two-year-old son’s cough felt different.
He had been awake much of the night. By the time Leanne picked him up from daycare the next day, he had developed a fever and his breathing had changed.
She could see the skin around his neck pulling in with every breath. Looking at his stomach, she could see his ribs as he struggled to breathe.
“I could hear it too when he was breathing,” she remembers. “I knew it didn’t sound right.”
Her family doctor tried a puffer, hoping to keep him out of the emergency department. It helped, but only briefly.
Leanne called her mom.
“What do I do?”
“You have to go to the ER.”
Choosing specialized care for her child
Leanne lives in the Tri Cities, with other hospitals closer to home. But when it came to deciding where to take her son, her family chose Surrey Memorial Hospital.
They knew it had a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Department.
So, they got in the car and drove to Surrey.
Within about 20 minutes of checking in, a nurse was assessing her son and taking his vitals. Soon after, they were brought into a private room where a physician and nursing team began treating his breathing.
“I had never felt so taken care of in my entire life,” Leanne says.
For a frightened parent watching a toddler struggle to breathe, that feeling mattered.
But so did what happened next.
Care designed for children
For a two-year-old who was already sick and scared, it wasn’t easy.
That’s when the bubbles appeared.
Then a light-up wand. Colouring activities. Even the team’s name tags had characters on them that he could recognize.
“You can just tell the people that work there either have kids or like working with kids,” Leanne says. “They want to work with the kids.”
The physician took time to explain what was happening. There was an X-ray and a thorough assessment. Leanne never felt hurried or that the team was trying to move them along.
“I never felt rushed,” she says. “They took the time to go through every little step.”
It is easy to think of pediatric care in terms of medicine, equipment and treatment.
For families, it can also be a bubble wand at exactly the right moment.
Six weeks later, they were back
This time, her son recognized the surroundings.
He remembered the mask. He remembered the medicine. And he wanted no part of either.
Again, the team responded not only to what he medically needed, but to the little boy sitting on the hospital bed.
They brought him a popsicle and toy cars. He played with the cars on the bed and, when it was time to leave, the team told him he could take them home.
“Just really little things like that made all the difference,” Leanne says. “It was very intentional and very considerate. You can tell they just want the kids to be comfortable.”
This visit brought a new reality for their family.
Her son was diagnosed with asthma.
From emergency care to confidence at home
Since then, Leanne has begun learning what can trigger her son’s asthma.
Smoke from summer wildfires appears to be one trigger. Certain cleaning products may be another.
There is still uncertainty.
But she left Surrey Memorial with something that has already made a difference: an asthma action plan.
Using a green, yellow and red system, it helps her understand symptoms, what action to take and when her son may need emergency care.
When another flare-up occurred, she pulled it out.
“It was so helpful,” she says. “The cough was coming back, and I could look at the plan and say, okay, what should we do? When should we go?”
For Leanne, that is part of what exceptional care has meant: not simply treating her child in an urgent moment but helping her feel better equipped to care for him when they return home.
And if they need emergency care again, she knows where she wants to go.
“You feel really cared for.”
Leanne now finds herself telling other parents about the Pediatric Emergency Department at Surrey Memorial.
“The nurses are the best. The doctors have been amazing,” she says. “You just feel really cared for, and you don’t feel like you’re a number in the system. It’s a group of people that just genuinely care. They just want to help.”
Her family lives outside Surrey.
Yet their experience is a powerful example of Surrey Memorial Hospital’s role as a regional anchor for children’s care, supporting families from Surrey and communities across the Fraser Health region.
Each year, tens of thousands of children rely on this ecosystem of care, from pediatric emergency and surgery to specialized outpatient programs and mental health services. Behind those numbers are families like Leanne’s, relying on specialized expertise when a child needs it most, clear guidance to understand what comes next, and compassionate, child-centred care that can make a frightening experience feel a little less overwhelming.
For Leanne and her son, that care came through clinical expertise and reassurance, but also through the smallest of gestures: a popsicle, a toy car and a stream of bubbles at exactly the right moment. Together, they are a reminder of what care designed around the unique needs of children and their families can mean.
Helping make exceptional children’s care possible
This fall, Kirmac Cares for Kids is helping Surrey Hospitals Foundation strengthen care for children and youth.
Through the Kirmac Cares for Kids Match Campaign, donations can make twice the impact, helping support advanced medical equipment, therapeutic programs, specialized services and child-friendly care environments across Surrey Memorial Hospital’s ecosystem of care.
Because exceptional pediatric care is more than treating an illness.
It is having specialized expertise there when a child is struggling to breathe. It is giving a parent the knowledge and confidence to understand what comes next. And sometimes, it is knowing that a popsicle, a toy car or a stream of bubbles can make a frightening hospital visit feel just a little less scary.
Every child deserves the very best care, close to home.
Right now, your gift can make twice the difference thanks to Kirmac Cares for Kids.
This is the kind of care your support helps strengthen.
During the Kirmac Cares for Kids Match Campaign, every gift can make twice the impact for children and families. Help strengthen children’s care with Kirmac Cares for Kids Match Campaign
