Frank Baratta is grateful for the attention he received at the Hospital and wants to help ensure that same care is always available to everyone in the community. 

Frank Baratta experienced leg pains for years. Last year the pain and difficulty walking became worse until one night in July a pain “like never before” got him out of bed; a pins-and-needles sensation with a sharp pain from his toe to his thigh. Only standing with all his weight on one foot eased the pain.

After enduring the pain for a couple of weeks Frank saw his doctor.  Still, over the next few weeks, he would wake up in pain in the middle of the night.  Finally in August, during a 2 a.m. bout of pain, Frank’s wife Chrissy insisted he go to the emergency room.

Within minutes of seeing Frank, the attending physician diagnosed a vascular flow problem as the root of the pain.  The physician said, “I have the doctor just for you: Dr. Kirk Lawlor.  He’s a young guy and he’s brilliant.”

Although Dr. Lawlor’s appointments were booked solid, he came in on a scheduled day off specifically to see Frank, a gesture that Frank still appreciates. A vascular flow study and an angiogram yielded one conclusion: Frank would need an abdominal aortic bypass. Frank recalls that Dr. Lawlor was gentle and thorough in explaining the procedure.

The pre-operative examination was scheduled for mid-September. “It’s a four or five hour program. I don’t know how many people I saw, but it must have been half the LHSC staff,” Frank jokes.  “Everyone that was going to be involved in my care made me feel so good…they were sincerely concerned about making me well again.”

During the extensive pre-operative examination it was determined that the nerves were in danger due to the reduced blood supply, so the surgery was moved up.

The surgery went as planned and Frank was moved to a “step-down” unit. “Great nurses there,” Frank said. “Then they moved me up to C4-100 and the nurses there…incredible. I don’t know how many there were, every 12 hours they changed, but it didn’t matter because every one of them was worried about Frank Baratta. I was glad that I was in that facility, getting the level of care I was getting.”

After leaving the Hospital, there were follow-ups with Dr. Lawlor, during which he told Frank to call him if he needed anything. Frank took the opportunity to sit down and tell Dr Lawlor how highly he regarded Hospital staff and that he was considering a donation to vascular surgery.

This was not to be Frank’s first donation to the Hospital though. Bernardo Group Ltd. and the Barattas have contributed to the Hospital for more than 13 years. Frank had a heart attack at age 42 and a cardiac bypass two years after that. Two years previous to that, Frank’s business partner at the time received care at LHSC as well. “We made a decision to contribute to the Hospital when we could,” Frank says.  “It’s part of our commitment to the future that we are going to continue to do so.”

Frank says his business is a small one but a good one and they share with LHSC what they make.

“Being able to develop new techniques requires significant resource allocation.  The cost of the treatments themselves can be more than when we use less invasive techniques,” says Dr. Lawlor. “So financial support such as what Frank has done makes a very significant contribution and allows us to pursue those goals, and over time, improve our patient treatment options.”

Frank describes LHSC as a great facility that deserves all the help it can get. He hopes his story will inspire others to help when they can, and to invest in excellent health care; such as he experienced first-hand. “If you are going to be sick, London is the place to be sick,” he says, “because you are going to get the best of care.”