The London Health Sciences Centre’s off-site surgical facility will now bare the name of the first Muslim player to win the Stanley Cup.
Calgary Flames forward and London-native Nazem Kadri has donated $1 million to the hospital network for its Ambulatory Surgical Centre. It was announced on Thursday the facility located on Baseline Road across from Victoria Hospital will now be named the Nazem Kadri Surgical Centre.
“Health is first and foremost,” said Kadri. “To be able to partner and become a donor of something of this magnitude really makes me feel very privileged and honoured. It’s a humbling feeling, knowing that my name is going to be up on that surgical centre.”
Kadri said when he first heard about the idea of creating the centre he was intrigued.
“It didn’t take much time to think about [giving the financial donation]. I’ve been in a lot of medical facilities and nothing compares to this one. It really doesn’t,” said Kadri. “I saw it pre-construction and just walked through it again today to see the finished product and it is surreal. That vision that was created and everything was executed perfectly.”
Since opening in March 2020, more than 3,800 surgeries have been performed at the centre. The 10,000-square-foot space is equipped with two operating rooms for patients in need of low-risk surgeries such as ankle, hip and knee arthroscopies and ACL repairs. It also has a waiting room, medical device reprocessing room for sterilization and a 10-bed pre/post operative recovery suite. It has allowed the LHSC to reduce operating costs by 56 per cent by standardizing care, reducing the number of instruments on surgical trays, and reducing the turnover time between patients from 23 minutes to 9 minutes.
Dr. Abdel-Rahman Lawendy
“People come in, they have their surgery, they go home,” said Dr. Abdel-Rahman Lawendy, orthopaedic surgeon and centre medical lead. “These tend to be healthier patients that don’t require inpatient resources and standard operations that are required in the community that can be done in a lean fashion.”
Lawendy added that without Kadri’s donation the centre would have never got off the ground.
“The hospitals run on an operating budget, it is not like they have cash waiting to do something new,” said Lawendy. “So without the seed funding we really can’t start it. All of the hospitals are strapped to meet their mandate and then you come and say ‘let’s open something new’. That’s not easy to do. Without that seed gift we couldn’t have started.”
Kadri was joined by his daughter and father for the funding announcement held at the Sunningdale Golf and Country Club. It comes just a week and a half after Kadri made history by bringing the Stanley Cup to the London Muslim Mosque. Until that moment the coveted trophy had never been in an Islamic place of worship.
Kadri, who was born and raised in London, played most of his OHL career with the London Knights after a trade from the Kitchener Rangers. He became the first Muslim to win the Stanley Cup when the Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in June. After three seasons in Colorado, Kadri became a free agent and signed a new seven year, $49-million contract with the Calgary Flames earlier this summer.
