Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus - Ottawa, ON

The Ottawa Hospital was created in 1998 as a merger between the Civic Hospital, the General Hospital and Riverside Hospital. Back in the 1920s, the Civic Hospital was also created as a merger of older hospitals. The Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 convinced municipal authorities that a more modern hospital was needed. The main building of the Civic Hospital opened to patients in 1924.

The mother and baby areas of the Civic Hospital have stories of their own. During the Second World War while the Dutch royal family found sanctuary in Ottawa, Princess Margriet was born at the Civic in a ward given temporary status as official Netherlands territory. In 1982, a fundraising performance by Frank Sinatra and Rich Little was fundamental to the creation of the Rich Little Special Care Nursery. Decades later, my grandson spent a few of his first weeks in that same special care nursery.

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