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What better way to celebrate Earth Day than with these beautiful young ferns and lily of the valley leaves from the Pacific Spirit Park yesterday that remind us every day how precious and magnificent our world is.

Thank you also to all the children who honored the earth today with their beautiful painted rocks which we enjoyed on the Salish Trail in the Pacific Spirit Park this morning.

Thank you also to Greta Thunberg @gretathunberg who represented them and all of us speaking so eloquently and passionately to the US Congress today. And thank you to Amanda Gorman who has inspired us once again with her moving and beautiful poem Earthrise. The Earth could not have better champions who give us all such hope.

I was honored to join my General Surgery colleagues virtually this morning after the recent installation of my charcoal/pencil drawing “The Meeting Point” in the ICU at Vancouver General Hospital. It was also an opportunity to recognize and congratulate the unit’s ECMO team on their recently receiving B.C. Health Care’s Gold Apple Award for their collaborate approach to life-saving patient care.

The drawing was made one year ago to thank our frontline healthcare workers and was donated to the Hospital Foundation. Here is the description that accompanies the piece:

When the Science of Medicine meets the Art of Medicine to save lives in the COVID unit at Vancouver General Hospital. I would like to suggest that ECMO, which stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, could also stand for Ever Compassionate Medical Optimism, thanks to the dedication and bravery of our frontline healthcare workers epitomized by the caring nurse-specialist portrayed in my drawing.

With my gratitude to Katharine Knowles and the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation for accepting my gift and for so thoughtfully hanging it in the Unit, and to Dr Adam Thomas for his photograph which was the inspiration for my drawing.

Enjoy BC Health Care Awards presentation of the inspiring work of the VGH ECMO Unit: