Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies Current Exhibitions
Monday, July 5, 2010 at 8:31PM Grizzly!
Until October 11, 2010
Grizzly! features the art of contemporary artists Maureen Enns, Dale Auger, Dwayne Harty, Dan Hudson, and Cathryn and Fran Jenkins. Other artworks, artifacts, and archival materials from the Whyte Museum’s collection bring home the reality of our relationship with these beautiful and sometimes frightful creatures. From First Nations people to those of us living in the Canadian Rockies today, grizzly bears are a fact of life and symbol of the wild. The exhibition will touch upon bear-human conflict, wildlife management issues, and the impact of diminishing habitat. This exhibition celebrates Parks Canada’s 125th Anniversary.
The Stuff of Legend: The Luxton Family in Banff and the Bow Valley
featuring High Fashion in the Rockies
Ongoing
Heritage Gallery
High Fashion in the Rockies – A new story has been added to the Heritage Gallery focusing on a surprising collection of gorgeous dresses belonging to Georgina and Eleanor – the Luxton ladies. Rediscovered in the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation collection were dozens of beautiful dresses from 1910 through the 1960s. A selection of this extraordinary assortment of apparel along with accessories including gloves, purses, jewellery, smoking paraphernalia and lingerie, is included.
Through the Lens: A Stoney Perspective
Until September 15, 2010
Kiguli Conference Room and Vermilion Lakes Room, The Juniper Hotel, 1 Juniper Way and Mt. Norquay Road
Through the Lens has been a Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies outreach program for 13 years, encouraging students from Banff, Canmore and Morley to learn and experience photography. This exhibition, conceived by The Juniper Hotel, is a selection from this body of work created by students from Morley that represent the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley Bands.
Art Show & Sale
Bears, Bears, Bears
Until September 14, 2010
Bears, both black and grizzly, are some of the most sought-after wildlife for visitors to the Canadian Rockies. Many talented artists are also inspired by them, and have captured the essence of these massive creatures which can be simultaneously amusing, fascinating, and terrifying. This Art Show and Sale provides some of this area’s most talented wildlife artists with an opportunity to share their unique personal depictions of our bruin friends in a variety of media including: painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media pieces.
Upcoming Events
Canada Day Sidewalk Art
Thursday, July 1, 10:30 AM, FREE
Celebrate Canada’s birthday by helping to turn the Whyte Museum’s sidewalk into a work of art. Show your national pride by creating your own piece of Canadian-themed sidewalk art. (We use environmentally friendly tempera paint.) Come early, space is limited.
Music in the Gallery
Sundays, July 4, 11, 18, 25 and August 1, 4 PM
Admission by donation
Here is a feast for the senses. Thrill to performances by some of the best emerging musicians of our time as your eyes take in the Grizzly! exhibition in the main gallery. These 45-minute concerts are presented in partnership with The Banff Centre, Music and Sound.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Spirit of the Land and People
July 1 – October 10, 2010
Opening Reception, July 1, 2 to 4 PM
In the early 1980s, Parks Canada undertook a three-year program of archaeological research and mitigation in response to the twinning development of the Trans-Canada Highway. One of several prehistoric sites that were examined was the Vermilion Lake Site. Radiocarbon dating indicated that there has been human habitation in this area for over 10,000 years. Parks Canada’s role in this very important discovery will be featured in the exhibition, Spirit of the Land and People. In addition, the exhibition will honour Peter and Catharine Whyte’s relationship with First Nations people throughout their lives here. The museum’s collection will highlight the life of their close friend Chief Walking Buffalo, who through his work as a peace activist, created important bridges between cultures. This exhibition celebrates Parks Canada’s 125th Anniversary.
Museum:
Open 10 am – 5 pm daily
111 Bear Street, Box 160
Banff, AB Canada T1L 1A3
Closed Christmas and New Year’s Day
www.whyte.org
Adults $8
Students/65+ $5
Families (2 adults, 2 children) $20
Children 6 and under are free
Archives and Library:
Open 10 am – 5 pm (closed noon to 1 pm), Monday to Friday
For more information, please contact:
Katie Daniel
Marketing & Communications Specialist
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Box 160, 111 Bear Street
Banff, Alberta T1L 1A3
Reader Comments (5)
You're really talented.Words beautiful, fluent!I like it very much!bvlgari glasses
Despite not doing the proper research, using single sources without confirmation, and writing a disparaging article BEFORE interviews with CCSVI physicians had been done, The Winnipeg Free Press decided that headline grabbing was preferential to printing a balanced and truthful front page article in the Saturday edition. It’s a matter of record that junior reporter Melissa Martin was tweeting that she had written an expose of CCSVI Clinic, before she had even interviewed the researcher involved with a study that CCSVI Clinic is co-sponsoring on safe and effective aftercare protocol for the “liberation Procedure”. If the hypothesis is confirmed, this protocol could help to dramatically reduce the 50% rate of restenosis in MS patients who choose to obtain the procedure abroad.
Instead, The Winnipeg Free Press chose to attempt to create a scandal where none exists. The premise of the article maintained that clients of CCSVI Clinic are “pressured” through harassing phone calls and “multiple” mailings. In fact only one mailing that contains the clients results of their Doppler Ultrasound is ever sent out to every client and only one phone call is made by the nurse to the client to follow up and answer any questions they may have about their results. No further calls are made except where the patient requests help with some information or for requested help in navigating the system.
Fjola Davidson, one of CCSVI Clinic’s clients who will shortly be receiving the new extended aftercare protocol following venous angioplasty surgery , said in fact said that she intends to send a “scathing letter to the Winnipeg Free Press” and that it was she “who was pressuring CCSVI Clinic to get to Noble Hospital, not the other way around”. Another client, Robert Prior, had been researching the best place to have the procedure and said, “ Once I read and understood your aftercare protocol, it became the only logical and realistic option as far as I was concerned. The Free Press article is disgusting.”
In a late interview for this article, Doug Broeska, President of The CliniCard stated that the Free Press article is “disingenuous” and “false”. “I am not the spokesman for CCSVI Clinic, nor did I claim to be.” says Broeska. “She interviewed me for about four minutes and misquoted everything I said. The CliniCard does fulfillment for several clients using our medical record-keeping technology and I don’t presume to speak for those other clients either. Furthermore I know that Ms. Martin interviewed several other medical professionals actually involved with CCSVI Clinic and did not print what they had to say because it did not help to sensationalize her article. If the Winnipeg Free Press had printed anything close to the truth, they wouldn’t have had a story, let alone a headline, which is what the fabrication they printed was all about. I honestly don’t know how these people sleep at night.”
Attempts to blog supporting comments under the article online have not been successful for everyone who’s tried. Lisa Chapil, the Nurse Administrator for CCSVI Clinic had her comment severely censored to the point it totally lost its message. In the new age of ‘managed’ news stories, it seems that the only freedom of speech that The Winnipeg Free Press supports is its own. Because you cannot read her comments anywhere else, Ms Chapil’s comments about the Free Press article are as follows:
“There is a difference between responsible reporting and what Melissa Martin chose to write about the CCSVI Clinic in this article. She was in possession of factual information and documents that put the CCSVI Clinic in a favorable light but chose to withhold the information she received from interviews with people knowledgeable about CCSVI Clinic that would have conflicted with her agenda to smear our reputation in order to sensationalize her story and grab a headline. At no time did anyone from the CCSVI Clinic pressure patients into going to India for the Liberation Procedure. She should have considered that the one single person who made that claim clearly had her own agenda because she was disheartened by the ‘borderline’ results of her Doppler ultrasound. We simply provide information to people about our lengthened hospital stay and enhanced aftercare program should a patient decide to have the procedure. You can’t pressure someone to make an important decision about their health and all of our literature clearly states that. These MS patients are more knowledgeable about the CCSVI condition and about the options for treatment than most physicians are. To suggest that they can be pressured into a decision to have the procedure done in India is ludicrous. Patients who have signed up to be part of our open-ended study on the safety and efficacy of an enhanced aftercare protocol to reduce the rate of re-stenosis versus having the procedure on an outpatient basis (which may be contributing to long term failure of the procedure) have done so to ensure that they are getting the best care possible and because they want to be part of the important work we are doing on behalf of MS patients.”
CCSVI Clinic Receives Joint IRB Approval for Aftercare Protocol Study.
The joint application between Noble Hospital and CCSVI Clinic has been approved through the IEC Institutional Review Board (IRB) that will allow researchers to use patient data to study their new extended and enhanced aftercare treatment protocol. The study hypothesis states that in MS patients with CCSVI undergoing endovascular treatment, those receiving the enhanced hospital aftercare protocol will have an improved long-term outcome over those patients not receiving this same protocol. The study is a Prospective, Longitudinal, Cohort Study in which patients are given the enhanced hospital aftercare and post-procedure protocol and then followed at regular 3 month intervals post-procedure, with the same measurements including symptoms and clinical examination, EDSS scale, Quality of Life Scale (QOL) and Doppler U/S.
Dr. Anand Alurkar, an Interventional Radiologist has done thousands of Intra and Extra cranial angio-procedures over the past 10 years. His previous studies may indicate that it’s critical to position and movement control patients who have had a venous angioplasty post-procedure, monitor them for days afterward with various imaging techniques, for other symptoms of restenosis, and re-treat if necessary. Previously unpublished data for patients who have had venous angioplasty may support a much lower restenosis rate (< 20%) in non-MS patients with the same neck vein blockages, (while conventional liberation treatments of MS patients who undergo the procedure are treated mostly as outpatients) have a restenosis rate of over 50% (at 400 days). Currently, this means that over half of all of the MS patients who get the liberation therapy can expect to be looking to get the procedure done again within a year or so, which would not be considered a successful outcome. This may also be the biggest hurdle to overcome in getting the liberation therapy approved in North America short of clinical trials. If the positive effects of the liberation procedure disappear in many patients after only a few months, it would be reasonable to assume they are placebo unless data is collected to show otherwise. Apart from confirming restenosis rates, the study will establish whether it’s just as important to observe a strict protocol after the procedure for a period of up to 10 days to prevent restenosis. Dr. Avneesh Gupte, an Interventional Neurosurgeon involved in the study says “If our daily Doppler Ultrasounds post-procedure come up with anomalies that indicate the beginnings of restenosis in the veins, we’ll take them back and do another balloon angioplasty where the occlusion is starting to occur. It should be no different for MS patients than the non-MS patients but the key is really that they be position controlled, movement controlled, and then monitored for 10 days afterwards to be sure”.
Dr. Don Simonson, the Principal Investigator for the study agrees; “Of course there are other reasons that patients restenose, depending on the condition of their veins in the first place, and operator inexperience, so we have designed a study that isolates the aftercare protocol because we feel it may be at least as important, and in any case well worth studying.”
CCSVI Clinic is already sponsoring patients for this protocol with a 10-day stay in the hospital where patients will be imaged daily, post procedure. If there is evidence of re-occlusion, they will be taken back to the OR and re-treated. To comply with the IRB approval, once home, patients will be examined and/or surveyed at regular intervals by a Principle Investigator (PI) for several years after the treatment to study the changes. Patients will have regular consults with the surgeon who performed their procedure as part of the protocol.
More and more MS patients are reporting initial success (including vascular and some neurological differences) as a result of the venous angioplasty (liberation therapy) but then regression to previous symptoms sometimes within weeks post-procedure. It is estimated that the failure rate of the “liberation therapy” may be 50% or higher, even through the most experienced and best-known surgeons. Consequently, there is increasing concern amongst patients that the liberation therapy hypothesis needs to include a post-procedure protocol that is more refined than simply releasing the patient from the hospital or clinic within hours or a day of the procedure. If the study hypothesis is correct, it means that there are many other considerations that indicate a post-procedure stabilization period, re-examination, and re-treatment if necessary.
A recent intake of Canadian patients confirmed that they were most satisfied with the protocol. “I am convinced that CCSVI Clinic has been by far the best choice available”, says Nicole Magnan, speaking on behalf of her husband, Robert who underwent the therapy under the 10-day protocol. “And nobody in this world that can convince me otherwise. Robert came in here a broken man. He had no hope. His next step was the nursing home. Today he is walking with the aid of a walker and with consistent daily physiotherapy he will make more steps every day. Most importantly, we are hoping that the positive changes will be permanent and the doctors at CCSVI Clinic explained that. They are such special people that will remain in our hearts forever.”
Regular research updates will be published on the CCSVI Clinic website. Questions may be directed toward the CCSVI Clinic administration at 1-888-419-6855 . Persons wishing to participate in the study must agree to the informed consent process, qualify through an inclusionary and exclusionary process and agree to be followed for several years by the study research team. They must be prepared to travel to Noble Hospital in Pune, India, but all arrangements will be taken care of by staff associated with the study. Interested persons should ensure that applications are in as soon as possible since there are limitations on the funding for the study population..Please log on to http://ccsviclinic.ca/?p=830 for more information.
Can it be better? No, defiantly not, this website delivers! Never found so much information in one place before. Thank You Owners! Visit us at http://www.surjo.com/ and http://www.surjo.com/tech/
After 6 months of offering stem cell therapy in combination with the venous angioplasty liberation procedure, patients of CCSVI Clinic have reported excellent health outcomes. Ms. Kasma Gianopoulos of Athens Greece, who was diagnosed with the Relapsing/Remitting form of MS in 1997 called the combination of treatments a “cure”. “I feel I am completely cured” says Ms. Gianopoulos, “my symptoms have disappeared and I have a recovery of many functions, notably my balance and my muscle strength is all coming (back). Even after six months, I feel like there are good changes happening almost every day. Before, my biggest fear was that the changes wouldn’t (hold). I don’t even worry about having a relapse anymore. I’m looking forward to a normal life with my family. I think I would call that a miracle.”
Other recent MS patients who have had Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation (ASCT), or stem cell therapy have posted videos and comments on YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFQr2eqm3Cg.
Dr. Avneesh Gupte, the Neurosurgeon at Noble Hospital performing the procedure has been encouraged by results in Cerebral Palsy patients as well. “We are fortunate to be able to offer the treatment because not every hospital is able to perform these types of transplants. You must have the specialized medical equipment and specially trained doctors and nurses”. With regard to MS patients, “We are cautious, but nevertheless excited by what patients are telling us. Suffice to say that the few patients who have had the therapy through us are noticing recovery of neuro deficits beyond what the venous angioplasty only should account for”.
Dr. Unmesh of Noble continues: “These are early days and certainly all evidence that the combination of liberation and stem cell therapies working together at this point is anecdotal. However I am not aware of other medical facilities in the world that offer the synthesis of both to MS patients on an approved basis and it is indeed a rare opportunity for MS patients to take advantage of a treatment that is quite possibly unique in the world”.
Autologous stem cell transplantation is a procedure by which blood-forming stem cells are removed, and later injected back into the patient. All stem cells are taken from the patient themselves and cultured for later injection. In the case of a bone marrow transplant, the HSC are typically removed from the Pelvis through a large needle that can reach into the bone. The technique is referred to as a bone marrow harvest and is performed under a general anesthesia. The incidence of patients experiencing rejection is rare due to the donor and recipient being the same individual.This remains the only approved method of the SCT therapy.