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Clockwise from left: Dr. Swyer looking at an infant in the NICU, 1980; As a medical officer in WWII, 1944; With wife Fernande, 2018; Michèle with her father on Remembrance Day, 2017; With daughter Sandra, 2011; In the SickKids NICU, 1980. supplied
A daughter honours the memory of her renowned father – a pioneer in the medical care of fragile newborns
Michèle recalls feeling a sense of wonder as a young child when she visited her father, Dr. Paul Swyer, at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, where he headed the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It was a rather magical place for Michèle and her older sister, Sandra, who had the chance to peer through windows to watch incredibly small infants in their incubators, hooked up to an assortment of wires and tubes.
“It was fascinating to see these babies that were tinier than my dolls, yet were alive,” says Michèle. “I was too young to fully understand, but somehow I knew that my father was going to make all those babies better.”
Over the years, Michèle came to learn the true extent of her late father’s significant contributions to the NICU at SickKids and to neonatology medicine around the world. To honour his memory and his accomplishments, she is leaving a legacy gift to SickKids Foundation.
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My father led the team that developed ventilation, resulting in the first surviving ventilated baby.
Many of his colleagues say that was the pivotal time that neonatology came into being. ”
“It’s gratifying to make this gift through my will so I can help my father’s work continue and further expand the realm of possibilities in his field, which is always progressing and saving babies at younger and younger ages,” she says.
Dr. Swyer was known as the “father of neonatology.” He set up the first intensive care unit for premature and critically ill newborns at SickKids in 1961 and pioneered many treatments and innovations that enhanced neonatal care and saved lives.
“My father led the team that developed ventilation, resulting in the first surviving ventilated baby,” Michèle says. “Many of his colleagues say that was the pivotal time that neonatology came into being.”
Dr. Swyer created the sub-specialty of neonatology within paediatrics and advanced clinical knowledge for the care of premature and sick newborns in numerous areas, including nutrition, neonatal transport and the regionalization and organization of neonatal care. In 1975, he wrote the first textbook in the field, called The Intensive Care of the Newly Born: Physiological Principles and Practice.
A major part of her father’s legacy is in the realm of teaching, Michèle explains. Dr. Swyer taught at the University of Toronto, training Canadian neonatology residents as well as visiting fellows from abroad.
“He was a gifted teacher who was devoted to imparting his knowledge to others. The international fellows he directly mentored, coached and inspired took that knowledge back to their own countries, and in this way, the unit at SickKids became a model for the development of NICUs around the world.”
Her father’s wish was to have his name be remembered in some form of teaching legacy, Michèle says. Accordingly, she has directed a portion of her donation to funding keynote speakers at an annual international neonatology conference held in Toronto by SickKids, called the T4 Health Conference (Triage, Transport, Treatment & Transition).
A hero on many levels
“When we mark Remembrance Day every November 11th, I think about how my father was also a hero in the Second World War,” Michèle adds. Originally from England, Dr. Swyer served as a medical officer on the front lines, treating wounded Allied soldiers in countries such as Holland, Belgium and Germany.
“In the war, he had to adapt treatments in difficult circumstances, and I think that training had an impact on his abilities to later adapt and innovate to save the lives of fragile babies.”
The progress her father drove is illustrated by the changes in the mortality rates for premature and low-birth-weight babies. From the time Dr. Swyer arrived at SickKids in 1953 to his retirement in 1986, there was a dramatic increase in survival rates for those infants.
“There continues to be research needed and teaching to be done every day in the mission to heal and save the lives of vulnerable newborns,” says Michèle.
“I feel very proud to know that my legacy donation will help babies to thrive and go on to live healthy lives.”
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