Photo: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
A retired Kelowna businessman is trying to turn tragedy into triumph.
Twenty-seven years ago, one of Paul Carr’s best days turned into one of his worst, after his wife, Kitty, died just four hours after giving birth to his daughter.
Carr was devastated and has spent much of his life working to ensure no one else has to go through what he and his daughter had to survive.
“I feel a profound responsibility to my wife and daughter, and to support women’s health in Canada,” Carr said.
Aside from the countless hours advocating for women’s health, Carr and the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health launched the Kitty Carr Fund this week.
The fund is supported by a generous donation from Carr and will be used to finance annual post-graduate scholarships focused on the prevention of maternal mortality, as well as initiatives towards the implementation of a confidential inquiry system in Canada.
The funding programs of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, the new Kitty Carr Fund, the Dawn Walker Grant and the Lalonde Bursary, will support research, education and initiatives to improve access to the highest quality of obstetric care to improve outcomes for mothers, their babies and their families.
Canada ranks 39th in the world in maternal mortality, and these new funds are designed to improve that ranking and eliminate preventable maternal deaths in Canada.
“The launch of the SOGC toolkit is the culmination of much research and collaboration. My daughter, Kitty Lana, and I are profoundly encouraged and grateful for the efforts of Dr. Cook and her colleagues in their extraordinary efforts to save mothers’ lives in Canada,” Carr said.
Carr is also launching a fundraising campaign by reaching out to more than a 100 Canadian business leaders asking them to match his donation or support the Kitty Carr Fund, which has a goal of raising $1 million to support research.
Dr. Popadiuk, chair of the CFWH, said “there is nothing more unexpected or tragic for a family than losing a mother in childbirth. Mr. Carr so poignantly and generously has shared his family’s personal tragedy and wants to see something positive come of it for Canadian mothers.”
Funding for these projects is also provided by Merck, an American multinational pharmaceutical company, through its Merck for Mothers program.
Carr says it’s essential to develop a program for confidential inquiry into maternal mortality in Canada, in order to understand the true picture of maternal deaths.
“By capturing and reviewing every such tragedy to one year post-delivery, and identifying contributory factors and opportunities for prevention, we hope to save mothers’ lives and improve obstetric care across the country,” Carr said.
Although there are no hard numbers in Canada, U.S. data shows over 60% of pregnancy-related maternal deaths were preventable. “We suspect the same is true for Canada, but we don’t have accurate data to confirm this,” Carr said.
“We are so thankful for Mr. Carr and for Merck for Mothers, for their steadfast support to help us begin this journey to eliminate preventable maternal death in Canada,” SOGC’s chief scientific officer Dr. Jocelynn Cook said. “We owe it to the families left behind to learn from each and every maternal death to prevent them happening again in the future. And we can do it.”
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