The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)

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The Hospital for Sick Children, corporately branded as SickKids, is a major pediatric teaching hospital located on University Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto, the hospital frequently ranks among the top-three pediatric hospitals in the world by Newsweek, peaking in 2021 and 2026 at the top of the list.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>https://rankings.newsweek.com/worlds-best-specialized-hospitals-2026/pediatrics</ref>

The hospital's Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning is the largest pediatric research centre in the world by area; a skyscraper that holds Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/the-peter-gilgan-centre-for-research-and-learning</ref> SickKids is credited with a number of inventions, including Pablum, a fortified children's cereal, in 1930. In 1968, the hospital opened North America's first pediatric intensive care unit. In 1989, the hospital discovered the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis. The hospital's research is primarily based in the fields of genetics and oncology. Several of Canada's first surgeries have been performed at SickKids, including the separation of conjoined twins, bone marrow transplantation, multi-organ transplantation, and in-utero cardiac surgery.<ref>https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-hospital-for-sick-children-birthday-celebration-1.7501615</ref>

History

File:Old Hospital for Sick Children.jpg
Victoria Hospital for Sick Children
File:Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. c. 1915.jpg
Nurse and orderly transport child to operating room, c. 1915
File:Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning 2023.jpg
Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning
File:Atrium, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada (2019).jpg
Atrium designed by Eberhard Zeidler

In 1875, an eleven-room house was rented for Template:CAD a year by a Toronto women's bible study group, led by Elizabeth McMaster.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Opened on March 1,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> it set up six iron cots and "declared open a hospital 'for the admission and treatment of all sick children.'" The first patient, a scalding victim named Maggie, came in on April 3. In its first year of operation, 44 patients were admitted to the hospital, and 67 others were treated in outpatient clinics.<ref name=history>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> John Gennings Curtis Adams became the hospital's first dentist of record in 1883.

In 1876, the hospital moved to larger facilities. In 1891, it moved from rented premises to a purposely-built building at College and Elizabeth Streets. It would remain there for 60 years. The building, known as the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children, is now the Toronto area headquarters of Canadian Blood Services. In 1951, the hospital moved to its present University Avenue location. On its grounds once stood the childhood home of the Canadian-born movie star Mary Pickford.<ref name=history />

In 1972,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the hospital became equipped with a rooftop helipad (CNW8).<ref>Template:CFS</ref>

From 1980 to 1981, the hospital was the site of a series of baby deaths.Template:Sfnp

In December 2022, the hospital was attacked by the LockBit ransomware gang, who apologized 13 days later and provided a decryptor to the hospital for free.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Contributions to medicine

The hospital was an early leader in the fields of food safety and nutrition. In 1908, a pasteurization facility for milk was established at the hospital, the first in Toronto, 30 years before milk pasteurization became mandatory.<ref name="m5175"/> Researchers at the hospital invented an infant cereal, Pablum. The research that led to the discovery of insulin took place at the nearby University of Toronto and was soon applied in the hospital by Gladys Boyd. Dr. Frederick Banting, one of the researchers, had served his internship at the hospital and went on to become an attending physician there. In 1963, William Thornton Mustard developed the Mustard surgical procedure to help correct heart problems in blue baby syndrome.<ref name="m5175">Hospital - About SickKids - History and milestones - Milestones - 1951–1975, accessed 12 June 2015.</ref> In 1989, a team of researchers at the hospital discovered the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis.<ref name="m7600">Hospital - About SickKids - History and milestones - Milestones - 1976–2000, accessed 20 June 2015</ref>

SickKids is a member of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the world's largest advocacy organization representing the biotechnology industry.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, SickKids engaged in several campaigns to promote COVID-19 vaccines.

SickKids received $99,680.00 from the Government of Canada for two projects through a grant program titled "Encouraging vaccine confidence in Canada."<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The grant was jointly administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

One of the funded proposals was titled “Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence: Educating the Educators.” The result was a promotional video titled “COVID-19 Vaccination Information for Education & Child Care Sector Staff” narrated by Dr. Danielle Martin.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> It was produced by 19 to Zero, and distributed by the Ontario Ministry of Education to school boards, private schools, and childcare centres to use in COVID-19 vaccination educational programs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A second proposal was titled “Stop COVID in Kids - School-based vaccine education outreach to build trust and empower families”, which received additional funding in the form of a $440,000 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada's Immunization Partnership Fund.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Alleged baby murders

In 1980-81, up to 29 baby deaths at SickKids were suspected to have been deliberately murdered by a nurse using the heart medication digoxin. However, after years of inquiry, it remains unclear if any murders actually took place or if toxicological tests were misinterpreted. In 2024, retired SickKids pediatric intensive care specialist Dr. Desmond Bohn, who took the latter position, pointed to similarities in the British Lucy Letby case.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Unqualified forensic testing

The hospital housed the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the request of various child protection agencies, 16,000 hair samples were tested from 2005 to 2015. The former Ontario Appeal Court judge, Susan Lang, reviewed Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory and determined that it was not qualified to do forensic testing. Lang also stated, "That SickKids failed to exercise meaningful oversight over MDTL's work must be considered in the context of the hospital's experience with Dr. Charles Smith."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The 2008 Goudge Report also found that Dr. Charles Smith, whose forensic testimony led to wrongful convictions in the deaths of children, was not qualified to do forensic testing.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Future

File:SickKids Patient Support Centre 2025.jpg
SickKids Patient Support Centre completed in 2025

The hospital is in its initial stages of expansion. In 2017, it established the "SickKids VS Limits" fundraising campaign, which continued until 2022 to raise $1.5 billion for the expansion project.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Westoll">Template:Cite news</ref> The funds will be used to build a patient care centre on University Avenue and a support centre on Elizabeth Street, to renovate the atrium, and to fund pediatric health research.<ref name="Westoll" />

To provide the required area for the buildings, demolition of existing structures was required. That included the removal of a skyway spanning Elizabeth Street, the demolition of the Elizabeth McMaster Building at the northeast corner of Elizabeth Street and Elm Street, and the demolition of the laboratory and administrative building.<ref name="On-Site">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp

Construction of the 22-story Patient Support Centre administrative building occurred on the site of the Elizabeth McMaster Building. Groundbreaking took place in October 2019, topping out took place in September 2022, and it opened in September 2023.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Peter Gilgan Family Patient Care Tower is expected to open in 2029, and the atrium's renovation is expected to be completed by 2031.<ref name="On-Site" />

Notable patients

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Notable staff

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References

Footnotes

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