Ann Bailey was sitting at her computer in April 2022 at a mobile-home park for seniors in Langford when a tree came crashing down and left her severely injured.
She wasn’t expected to live, but ended up making a remarkable recovery and is scheduled to move back to her repaired home of 17 years at the end of the month.
Some of the details of the tree toppling and the aftermath remain fuzzy.
“I didn’t hear it — it just came down,” said the 85-year-old, who suffered a broken pelvis and seven cracked ribs. “My son tells me that I had a gash on my head but I don’t remember getting that.”
Bailey also sustained a chest injury and several fractured vertebrae.
Langford Fire Rescue reported at the time that crews found her still sitting in a chair with branches on top of her.
Bailey was in the intensive-care unit at Victoria General Hospital for four weeks before being moved to the trauma ward, where she stayed until August of 2022.
“They were wonderful in the ICU,” she said. “They looked after me so well. I’m very happy that they were able to do all the wonderful work that they did.
“If it were not for those people in the ICU, I would not be alive today.”
Bailey said MRI technology was a key to determining her care. “They were able to see what was going on,” she said. “That equipment is so important.”
That’s why she’s speaking out in support of the Victoria Hospitals Foundation Imaging is Power Campaign, launched in October.
The $11-million campaign is the largest-ever for the foundation, which raises money for Victoria General, Royal Jubilee and Gorge Road hospitals, working in partnership with Island Health to help with all aspects of care, including equipment, education, and research.
For Bailey, her return to her normal life can’t come soon enough. She has enjoyed living in the Wellesley retirement residence since leaving the hospital, but is eager to be back home in time for Christmas.
“I have friends there and I’ll be able to see my cat,” Bailey said. “She’s being looked after by someone in the [mobile-home] park.”
The cat emerged safely from the damaged mobile home after hiding under the bed when the tree fell, she said.
Of the Imaging is Power campaign’s $11-million fundraising goal, $6 million is earmarked for refurbishing three existing MRI machines rather than buying new ones.
The foundation says that will give the health-care system three virtually new machines, each at one-third the cost of a new one, while allowing testing to go on in the least-disruptive way possible.
The campaign is also raising money for three new machines — a CT scanner, a SPECT/CT scanner and C-Arm.
Up to 500 people receive medical scans on a daily basis at Victoria General and Royal Jubilee hospital, the foundation said.
Donations can be made online at victoriahf.ca, by calling the foundation at 250-519-1750, by visiting the foundation offices at Royal Jubilee, or by mailing a cheque to the foundation at Wilson Block, 1952 Bay St., Victoria, B.C. V8R 1J8.
