Onah Addison

Around this time last year, Onah Addison picked up the phone and made the most important call of her life.

The 42-year-old mother of two phoned Dr. Santina Andrighetti, her obstetrician at Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.

“I’m experiencing heavy bleeding from my uterus,” said Onah.

“Come in to see me immediately,” said Dr. Andrighetti.

By the time Onah arrived at Oakville Hospital, she had lost so much blood she could barely walk. Dr. Andrighetti immediately ordered a blood transfusion, and then examined Onah using two pieces of life-saving equipment.

The first was a special microscope called a colposcope, which showed that Onah had a mass growing on her cervix. Dr. Andrighetti took a small tissue sample for testing.

The second piece of equipment was an MRI machine that produces images of internal organs. The MRI revealed that the mass was around seven centimetres in size. Onah was immediately transferred to the Oncology and Blood Disorder Program at a downtown speciality hospital.

Specialists there examined the MRI from Oakville Hospital and the results of the sample Dr. Andrighetti had taken. They determined that Onah had a rare form of leukemia called acute myeloid leukemia.

Onah is alive today because the right equipment was on hand at Oakville Hospital to give her a blood transfusion, discover the mass on her cervix, and immediately get her the specialized care she needed to save her life.

After a month of chemotherapy, there was a small reduction in the size of the mass. Onah returned home and continued her treatment.

“Eventually, the mass was down to one centimetre,” says Onah. “A few weeks ago I found out there was no trace, no sign of a mass. And they’ve not detected it in my blood or my bones!”

When Onah heard that we wanted to tell her story to help raise funds to buy urgently needed medical equipment for Oakville Hospital, she was overjoyed.
“It means a huge amount to me that donors helped purchase the MRI equipment that helped diagnose my leukemia,” says Onah. “Otherwise I might have been flailing around on a waiting list for months, waiting for an MRI opening. The fact that I could go to my local hospital and get it within a few hours was astounding to me.”

Onah thinks there are two reasons you should continue supporting Oakville Hospital.

First, she says, “Donate to Oakville because it’s the hospital that’s always going to be your first stop. When you’re in an urgent situation like mine, things need to be done expeditiously and locally.”

Second, says Onah, our community has grown so much. Everybody needs to play a part in making donations to keep that level of care where it is, or to grow it. We look forward to the new hospital, and part of that relies on fundraising.”