During the tournament dinner at the 2009 Drive for CHEO, Jeanne Robertson, Operations Director for In Patient Paediatrics at CHEO, created considerable excitement when she announced another equipment purchase at the hospital, with $90,000 from the Ryan Williams Fund.

She reported that CHEO has added an anaesthesia airway video cart to their euipment inventory to help anaesthetists manage difficult intubations.

Tracheal intubation is performed on many patients receiving general anaesthesia for surgery. Airway misadventures such as inadequate ventilation, difficult intubation and oesophageal intubation are the leading causes of complications involving the respiratory system and are responsible for the most serious injuries (death, brain injury, airway trauma).

At the tournament dinner in 2008, CHEO Foundation President Fred Bartlett surprised everyone by announcing that the hospital had already used $110,000 from the Ryan Williams Fund to buy equipment. He said CHEO had purchased a laparoscopic device for urological surgery less than two weeks earlier and that it was already in service. CHEO officials invited me to come in for a first-hand look at the new equipment

Pictured below is the state-of-the-art ConMed Linvatec Laparoscopic Surgical System that incorporates the latest technology for the Insufflators and includes a Video System. The video system is the most important item giving the best possible image and detail, which is crucial for the surgery. The Dual Port Insufflator produces controlled air pressure to create a cavity for the surgical site inside the body.