Douglas Hospital Foundation hopes to raise $1M after burst pipe causes extensive damage

The Douglas Foundation is trying to raise $1 million to help the hospital’s researchers and students following a burst pipe that caused extensive damage to the Douglas Institute last month.

When the pipe burst, lab equipment was drenched, a research area had to be closed, and a lot of work was lost.

“We are extremely frustrated,” said Dr. Gustavo Turecki, the Institute’s scientific director. “As a result of the water damage to the building, asbestos contaminated all the space. So now the space, it’s also a hazard.”

• Water damage forces closure of multiple buildings at Douglas Hospital, patient appointments cancelled

While they wait for decontamination and major repairs to take place, many of Turecki’s colleagues are unable to work and much of their valuable research into the brain and mental illness has been ruined.

“You have to understand that some of these experiments take years, and they’ve been working for a long time, so it’s clearly a major impact,” he said.

While any funds raised by the foundation won’t help repair the infrastructure, the head of the foundation, Laura Fish, hopes it will help scientists relocate labs, and continue to pay stipends to PhD students.

“We have launched an urgent appeal to our supporters to help raise funds to meet the needs caused by the flooding,” she said. “It can look like supporting acquisition of lab equipment, viruses, and additional tools that may or may not be covered by insurance.”

The West Island health board told CTV News the extent of the damage is still being assessed and it is too early to estimate the costs, or the date for reopening the pavilion. It added it is working with the CNESST to ensure the safety of staff and students.

Turecki says it’s not the first time the hospital has dealt with infrastructure problems, amid ongoing neglect. He says the hospital has been dilapidated for years, and the province admitted it was in dire need of modernization 20 years ago. Since then, he says, governments have come and gone, and promised projects have been shelved.

Most recently, a project the government committed to fund in 2020 was paused, just last year.

“We worked for five years, spent millions of dollars, and the project was just shelved,” he said.

In an email to CTV News, Santé Québec wrote, “The 2026-2036 Quebec Infrastructure Plan (QIP) will be unveiled in the next budget […] While waiting for the major QIP projects, we are working closely with institutions to maximize asset maintenance budgets.”

Dr. Turecki wants the repairs and the project to modernize the hospital to move faster for the sake of patients who stay weeks or months at a time, the staff who work in the buildings, and for the scientists to continue to get important grants that are highly competitive.

“Our researchers are extremely productive,” he said, “but they need the right conditions to do the work.”