Times The Langley
‘Popera’ at LCMS
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Times reporter Gary Ahuja and his family aim to raise $100,000 for Children’s Hospital Vikki Hopes Black Press
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Giving thanks for Maya Karm Ahuja was holding her baby daughter’s tiny hand, just after she had emerged from four hours of open-heart surgery. Maya appeared so tiny in the full-sized hospital bed, and she was connected to a frightening collection of tubes and machines. The four-month-old looked up at her mom and, before Karm could make a connection, the baby went blank. The beep of the flatlining heart monitor was followed by controlled panic. A nurse pushed Karm out of the way, and a cardiologist came charging into the room. Karm and her husband, Langley Times reporter Gary Ahuja, were escorted by another nurse to a private waiting area. “She’s gone. I don’t think they’re going to be able to revive her,” Karm said through her numbness. All Karm and Gary could do was wait. It would take a full 22 minutes for Maya to be revived, and a while longer before the couple was told she was alive. Maya’s health was precarious for months afterwards, but today the almost three-yearold is energetic and feisty. She enjoys playing with her six-year-old brother Danny, and they share an interest in Thomas the Tank Engine, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob SquarePants, cake and lollipops. “Maya is very physical. She loves to wrestle and tickle and pinch,” Karm said. The Abbotsford couple credit the team of doctors and nurses at B.C. Children’s Hospital with Maya’s recovery. As a way to give thanks, they are participating in the A World of Smiles Telethon on Sunday, May 26. Maya is this year’s “champion child.” They have also set a goal to raise $100,000 ($5,000 a year for 20 years) — the cost of an ECMO machine, a heart/lung machine used for open-heart surgery patients. “That machine helped save our daughter’s life. I only thought it would be right to give something back,” Gary said. Karm was about three months’ pregnant with Maya when a blood test detected some abnormalities, but the exact condition wasn’t known until her birth on June 15, 2010. A battery of tests confirmed that Maya had a congenital heart defect known as tetralogy of fallot, which reduces the flow of blood through the heart. She would require surgery, but not right away. That time came when Maya was four months old and her condition had worsened, causing increasingly laboured breathing and lethargy.
Meeting Place
Township completes takeover of LEC Dan Ferguson Times Reporter
Vikki HOPES/Black Press
Langley Times reporter Gary Ahuja, joined by his wife, Karm, and son Danny, 6, hugs his three-year-old daughter, Maya, at the family’s Abbotsford home. Maya, who had open heart surgery at four months old and has been diagnosed with both a congenital heart defect and Cornelia de Lange syndrome, is this year’s World of Smiles telethon’s Champion Child. The family’s goal is to raise $100,000 over 20 years for B.C.’s Children’s Hospital, to say thanks for all that its doctors, nurses and staff have done for Maya.
The Township of Langley now controls every aspect of day-to-day operations at the Langley Events Centre (LEC), with a municipallyowned company taking over ice maintenance at the multi-purpose sports facility. Ten Feet Sports and Entertainment replaces Recreation Excellence, the private company that had the contract for the services. The president of Ten Feet is the Langley Township general manager of administration and community services, Jason Winslade, who describes the Township-owned company as an arm’s-length public firm. Winslade said the takeover completes a switch from private to a more “cost-effective” public administration that was ordered by council three years ago. He praised Recreation Excellence for operating services during the transition. “They did an excellent job under difficult circumstances,” Winslade said. Employees of Recreation Excellence who work at the LEC are being invited to apply for jobs with Ten Feet, he said, adding the two other Township contracts with the private company, to manage the George Preston and Aldergrove facilities, have been extended another two years. In 2010, Langley Township council hired Recreation Excellence after it voted to take control of the management of LEC and buy out Langley Development Group, the company that built and operated the facility. The $8.83 million deal was approved in December of that year by a 7-2 council vote over the heated objections of then-mayor Rick Green.
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