With your support
we are transforming
trauma care for patients.

We saved their life: now we need to restore their life.

Just as we set the Canadian standard for trauma care, our new Jennifer Tory Trauma Recovery Clinic moves recovery to a new level. Long after they return home, many trauma survivors have yet to resume their former lives. Chronic pain may lead to addiction or make it impossible to go back to school or work. The routine activities of daily living may remain out of reach, and survivors may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and/or chronic depression.

We saved their life: now we need to restore their life. That is the vision of post-trauma care in Sunnybrook’s Jennifer Tory Trauma Recovery Clinic. Patients consult with a variety of specialists dedicated to helping them recover. Inside a comfortable, centralized space, our experts evaluate patients’ functioning, identify outstanding problems and offer tailored interventions.

Sunnybrook is helping trauma survivors return to physical, social and emotional health and productivity.

Hybrid operating room combines multiple technologies to save lives

When a life is on the line, every second counts. Time is the enemy. The hybrid OR conquers time. Today, a severely injured car crash victim may go to imaging for a CT scan to guide brain injury treatment, then the operating room to stop abdominal bleeding, and finally to the angiography suite to control pelvic bleeding.

In the hybrid OR, all that happens in one space. With twice the size and with three times the capability of a standard OR, Sunnybrook’s hybrid OR will allow our experts to combine imaging, open surgery and minimally invasive care in the same space and at the same time for faster and more precise care.

With donor support, Sunnybrook will turn two of our standard ORs into our first hybrid OR and return even more patients to the people they love.

Changing outcomes for trauma survivors

Joseph Macchione feels Sunnybrook’s elite trauma team gave him a second chance at life. He’s determined to make the most of it.

Days after finishing Grade 12, Joseph and his buddies headed to a park west of Toronto to fish. “All I can remember is getting out of the car and walking down the path,” Joseph says. His next memory is of awakening in hospital days later. Friends tell him that as they walked along a trail, he turned to them and slipped, falling to an embankment. The ground gave way and Joseph plunged 100 feet into a shallow river.

A friend performed emergency CPR and Joseph was airlifted to Sunnybrook. Paramedics resuscitated him on the way. When he reached the hospital, massive internal bleeding meant Joseph’s heart had stopped and he was effectively dead.

But Sunnybrook’s trauma team, led by surgeon-in-chief Dr. Avery Nathens, was standing by, ready to act the moment Joseph arrived. They opened his chest, restarted his heart and sent him to the operating room to stop his severe internal bleeding.

Joseph’s mother, Carmen Tavares, had never been to Sunnybrook before what she says was “the worst day of my life”. But she had always been aware of its reputation for caring for the most severely injured people in Ontario. “When I heard Joseph was at Sunnybrook, I knew it was serious. But I also knew he was in good hands. I knew that if Sunnybrook couldn’t help him, nobody could.”

Sunnybrook is an international leader in trauma system design. Dr. Nathens is globally renowned for his work in this area, says trauma centre medical director, Dr. Homer Tien, also chief medical officer for Ornge, the province’s air and land ambulance system.

After three weeks in hospital, Joseph is home, continuing to gain strength on his way to a full recovery. He is investigating various post-secondary school options and planning for a future he almost didn’t have. “I felt like Joseph was in the right place,” Carmen says. “These are the best doctors in Canada. I owe that hospital my life.”

Revolutionizing the treatment of severe burns

The Ross Tilley Burn Centre is the largest adult burn centre in Canada, offering the most advanced care for patients, from admission through reconstruction. Our scientists are working to invent the future of burn care, including with stem cells.

With donor support, we are making important discoveries in the areas of skin healing and stem cells. The vision: one day, the patient’s stem cells will be injected into a 3D printer and the surgeon will print new skin that is similar or identical to the patient’s own skin and cover all wounds with minimal or no scarring.

It could also mean no painful skin grafts, faster and improved healing, less pain and scarring. Instead of weeks in the hospital, patients will go home in days.

Our research has the potential to transform the care of severe burns and wounds around the world.