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CCHA HOME: Home > About CCHA > Meet the Executive > John MacEachern

John MacEachern

In 1941 I was born and diagnosed as having a Tetralogy of Fallot, better known as a “Blue Baby”. My desperate parents went looking for an answer and all cardiologists and surgeons they spoke with told them that there was no hope and that they should allow me to live a happy childhood until my eventual demise, speculated to be around the age of eight. Strictly by chance, they met Dr. Gordon Murray at a cocktail party and when they told them of their plight he advised them that there was a new procedure known as a Blalock-Tausig Shunt which had been performed successfully three times in the United States. As the operation was “experimental”, in his opinion, he told my parents that he would not charge them for it, as long as they went to all their friends and associates to donate and collect enough blood to see me through the surgery.

The rest was history. In 1945, at the age of four, I became the first “Blue Baby” to be successfully operated on in Canada. This "temporary" solution lasted until I was fifty years old when, in 1991, Dr. Bill Williams of The Hospital for Sick Children basically rebuilt my heart by adding a porcine valve and installing a piece of Dacron to close the quarter sized hole between my ventricles. I have never allowed my health situation to affect me. If I can’t run, or walk, or skate as fast as the next person, and they’re not happy about it, that’s their problem not mine. I can honestly say that in my entire life I have never been bullied or made fun of due to my heart condition.

 

After graduating from Cornell University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration I spent most of my life in the Hospitality Industry. I ended up owning and operating what I like to consider two of Canada’s finest country restaurants: The Doctor’s House and Livery in historic Kleinburg Ontario and The Captain’s House in beautiful Chester Nova Scotia. Upon retiring I took up a life long passion of mine: art. You may view a sample of my work by visiting my website at www.johnmaceachern.com.

 

I joined CCHA to, hopefully, assist in raising money for the incredible team of specialists who are devoted to helping CHD patients and their families, and who are devastatingly under funded. To talk to other patients both young and old to say that there is great hope and a bright future for them, and also to try and get Life Insurance for CHD patients where they won’t have to take a medical exam. Thanks to MANULIFE this last goal has been achieved for our members. I am married to my wonderful wife, Barbara, and have four incredible children and three (so far) precious grandchildren.