Woodstock Toy Drive for Toronto Sick Kids Hospital

Thursday, 2 November 2017 at 12:02

A grandma from Woodstock wanted to do something for the Sick Kids Hospital after her granddaughter had open heart surgery.

WOODSTOCK - A grandma from Woodstock has started a toy drive for the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital for the 4D unit.

Julie Walton-Jintes started the drive with another heart mom from Oshawa after her granddaughter Elena was rushed to the Sick Kids Hospital.

"At 11 weeks gestation they found out that Elena has TGA, which is Transposition of the Greater Artery and she needed corrective surgery within days after birth. We had to have the baby born in Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto where they induced my daughters labour, she went into labour early in Woodstock and they had to rush her to Toronto. They took the baby within hours of being born to Sick Kids in Toronto where they did a balloon procedure to open up a hole between the upper chambers of the heart so the blood could mix, so that the baby would have time to get strong before open heart surgery."

Elena had open heart surgery in Toronto and is still recovering.

"She is doing amazing, we are still with a leaky nitro valve, an S shaped Aortic artery and narrow pulmonary artery's, so we are followed very closely by cardiologists and many other doctors."

Walton-Jintes explains why they wanted to do this Toy drive.

"Myself and one of the other heart moms on 4D have gotten together and we are going to do a toy drive and sponsor a family for Christmas at Sick Kids. We are passionate about this, a lot of families are still in the hospital from when we were there and that kind of upsets us, so we want to make Christmas as bright as we can for them and help out the floor at the same time because they don't have as much stuff as they should for the children that are in there."

They are looking for new toys, gift cards, DVD players and new DVD's to give to families at the 4D unit.

You can help out by contacting Walton-Jintes directly at 519-608-3429 or by adding her on Facebook. She is willing to drive to your home or business to pick up any donations or you can drop them off at her place.