Shriners lay corner stone for new children's hospital

The Shriners Hospital for Children held acorner stone ceremony at the construction site of its new building yesterday, next to the futureMcGill UniversitySuperhospital.

Based on aMasonic tradition, theceremony at the site of the private hospital was attended by Masons and Shriners from aroundNorth America.

The facilitywill be three times the size of the current Shriner's hospital in Montreal and willprovidecutting-edge treatments for variousorthopaedicconditions

The hospital in Notre-Dame-de-Grce should be completed by 2015 and will be able to handle 25,000 clinical visits a year, up from 16,000 at the old site.

We have more ORs, we will have direct connection to the Montreal's Childrens [Hosptial], so complicated operations can be performed and we have an ICU right next at the Montreal Children's, said Paul Frank, chairman of the board of governors for Canada's Shriners hospital.

Jennifer Brown's son, Carter, was born with a rare bone disease, and received cutting-edge treatment at the hospital in Montreal, paid for by the Shriners.

We were told that he would never walk, he would never sit up on his own, and they would simply cast him whenever he fractured, so there was no treatment out there at all, said Brown.

Now Carter can walk, run, jump, and even managed to raise $5,000 for the future childrens hospital.

They kind of changed my life, said Carter.