MAKING DIAGNOSIS DAY TREATMENT DAY
We are committing to raise 1.01 million dollars to fully fund a therapeutic endoscopy suite at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and bring pioneering endoscopic care to patients across Fraser Health. With the arrival of Dr. Daud Akhtar at Abbotsford Regional Hospital, the Fraser Valley is quickly becoming a centre for advanced endoscopic care.
Dr. Akhtar previously performed the first endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided gastrojejunostomy at Royal Inland and Kelowna General Hospitals and has introduced several advanced procedures to Fraser Health. Today, Abbotsford is the only site in the region offering endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)—an advanced, minimally invasive procedure used to remove large superficial tumors, early-stage cancers and complex precancerous lesions from the gastrointestinal tract.
This campaign is about more than a new space or a piece of equipment. It’s about creating the infrastructure and resources needed to bring advanced, minimally invasive gastrointestinal (GI) care closer to home—and ensuring patients across the Fraser Valley can access the care they need without travelling far from family and support networks.
Dr. Akhtar has also brought esophageal, duodenal and colonic stenting for malignant obstructions to Abbotsford, a first for Fraser East. For patients who are too unwell for surgery, these procedures can provide meaningful palliation while allowing them to receive care close to home.
But bringing this level of expertise to our region is only the beginning. This campaign will help ensure our healthcare system has the dedicated space, equipment and resources needed to build on this momentum and expand access to pioneering endoscopic care.
The vision is simple:
To make advanced GI care available right here in the Fraser Valley.
It can mean we find cancer early and provide a cure with a scope, without an incision, without a big operation, without being admitted to a hospital for days.
In one hour, you can go home the same day, cancer free.
The first “brick” in this project was the EUS system the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation fundraised to bring to Abbotsford.
“The donors have gone a long way in (placing) that first brick. And now we’re hoping to just build that foundation alongside that brick, by really continuing that journey of diagnosis to treatment for all patients, so there’s not that huge gap from being diagnosed with something and then finally getting treated.”
“Many of those patients, from Chilliwack or Hope, find it difficult enough to come to Abbotsford. And so for them, a treatment isn’t just a choice between treatment and no treatment. It’s a choice of treatment vs palliation because of distance. Those sickest patients are too sick to go to Vancouver.”
“The thing that I encounter every single day in endoscopy is I have patients who have waited so long to see me. They come, I do the procedure, and I diagnose their problem. Then I wake them up, and then I tell them: not here, not today. So they wait another three months and have to go somewhere else for a procedure. Those weeks make the difference between someone having curative surgery, versus someone being incurable. Therapeutic endoscopy allows us to get that answer sooner when that time is still important. By introducing and bringing therapeutic endoscopy to Abbotsford with your gift, we can really give these options to our patients here.”
“By bringing therapeutic endoscopy to Abbotsford, I can make diagnosis day, become treatment day, in their own backyard.”
“In essence, for these sickest patients who have no other option, therapeutic endoscopy will throw the lifeline, and keep them alive.”
—Dr. Daud Akhtar
With your support, we can make this vision a reality. Please visit our DONATION PAGE today to make a gift toward this critically important new suite.