LETTER: ‘Nurses and team at Chilliwack General Hospital saved my daughter’s life’

Published 5:30 am Saturday, January 17, 2026

We hear so much about the breakdown in our health care system. High needs, few resources, and burnt out staff. I’d like to offer a different perspective.

On Jan. 6, my daughter gave birth to her first child, a beautiful boy, at Chilliwack General Hospital via C-section. Shortly after arriving in PACU (recovery room), her uterine artery tore and she was bleeding out. The nurses and team at CGH saved my daughter’s life.

I am an RN of 38 years, 27 of those years in critical care, and I know what it takes to keep someone alive long enough to get back to the OR. Nurses running flat out, like a well-oiled machine, each noticing the actions of the other and anticipating the next step. I know the commitment, dedication, and expertise involved in saving a life — though I never dreamed that life would be my little girls.

How do you thank a group of people for saving your child’s life? There are no words.

I could say all heroes don’t wear capes. I could say when life gets tough, God provides the souls to protect you. But from the depths of my heart I just want to say Thank You!

Thank you PACU nurses for your expertise.

Thank you to the RN who kindly guided my son-in-law out of the PACU, letting him know things were serious but not instilling in him the fear and panic of how critical things were.

Thank you Evelyn, maternity RN, for keeping family informed. Thank you Kim, maternity RN, for her compassion and facilitating family seeing my daughter in PACU after her emergent hysterectomy. To be able to see and touch her is a gift I will never forget.

Thank you to the ICU RN who, though busy, took the time to sit with my daughter and hold her hand as she grieved the end of her dreams of future children.

Thank you to the generous citizens of Chilliwack who donate blood so that my daughter had the many blood products she needed to live long enough to get back to OR.

Thank you to the anesthesiologist and two surgeons who operated on her.

Thank you Chilliwack General Hospital. You may be small but your team is first rate.

With enormous gratitude,

Val Mains