Tag Archives: Abby Luciano

Community

North Vancouver students sleep outside to raise nearly $10K for homeless youth

By Abby Luciano, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

More than two dozen students from Carson Graham Secondary gave up their beds and embraced the cold last Thursday to raise funds for youth experiencing homelessness.

The 25 students, along with four adults, slept outside overnight at the North Vancouver high school, collecting nearly $10,000 to go towards Covenant House Vancouver, a non-profit that helps end youth homelessness.

The students launched a campaign on the Covenant House website, where parents, friends and other supporters could make donations for the cause. 

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Health

Lions Gate Hospital deploys robotic surgical system

By Abby Luciano, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On a recent Saturday morning in an operating room at Lions Gate Hospital, Dr. Nava Aslani’s set to work performing surgery. 

But it’s not the typical sight of a surgeon hovering over a patient. She is, in fact, a few metres away from her patient, sitting in a chair looking through a viewer. With subtle foot movements, she uses pedals to control a camera trained on the patient. With her thumb and middle finger placed in a console, her hand movements control robotic arms that make critical, precise movements while working on the patient. And, in this instance, the patient is a small plate of colourful blobs.

The new machine is the Da Vinci Xi Robotic Surgical System, allowing surgeons at the North Vancouver hospital to perform procedures in the Paul Myers Tower for prostate removal; bowel, rectal and kidney cancers; hysterectomies and complex hernias.

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Health

UBC study shows ‘alarming’ number of spinal cord injuries from mountain biking

By  Abby Luciano, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new report from the University of British Columbia suggests there is an “alarming” number of people getting spinal cord injuries while mountain biking.

Researchers found 58 people in B.C. sustained a spinal cord injury while mountain biking between 2008 and 2022. There were only three such injuries from ice hockey in the same 14-year period.

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Arts, Indigenous Nations

Jody Wilson-Raybould challenges Canada’s history in new book

By Abby Luciano, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It was a full house at West Vancouver Memorial Library Sunday night in celebration of former Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould and author Roshan Danesh’s latest book, Reconciling History: A Story of Canada.

The book shares the voices of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, touching on Canada’s history of colonization and how that history has been painted.

“We definitely still have a long way to go, and there’s still horrible disparities and realities. But I think we have to take stock in recognizing that there has been constructive change and continue to build on it,” Wilson-Raybould said.

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