'They always make me feel at home,' says patient as Toronto's SickKids Hospital marks 150 years

Before it became the renowned SickKids Hospital, Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children was an 11-room house with six iron cots, rented by a group of women who declared it open "for the admission and treatment of all sick children."

The women were led by Elizabeth McMaster, a Toronto woman considered the founder of SickKids.

On April 3, 1875, Maggie, a young girl with a badly scalded arm, became SickKids' first patient.

That was 150 years ago.

On Thursday, at an event celebrating the hospital's milestone birthday, Maryjane Leonard recalled being told as a child that her great-great grandmother, McMaster, had founded the hospital. 

"Thinking about others and putting care out there and really fighting for something that's important is harder maybe than it used to be," Leonard said. 

"And so, we feel really a lot of pride that she started something and other people have continued to make it a priority and to continue her work."

In the past century and half, the hospital has had many firsts. 

Researchers at SickKids invented Pablum in 1930. The hospital opened a pediatric intensive care unit in 1968, one of the first in North America. And it performed Canada's first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins in 1971.

It also opened North America's first pediatric multi-organ transplant program in 1998. 

In 2009, it and Mount Sinai Hospital performed Canada's first cardiac surgery in utero. SickKids doctors performed Canada's first total artificial heart implant surgery in a child in 2022.

On Thursday, current and former patients, families, staff and elected officials gathered to mark the occasion, many in the hospital's signature blue colour, with balloons, cupcakes, music, speeches and special guests. 

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow joined the festivities. 

Nori Cheong, 10, a SickKids patient, said she was excited to take part in the celebration.