GIFT PROGRAM--03/06/07--Doctor Paul Wales tries to comfort three month old Jathushaan Kanagaratnam w

GIFT PROGRAM--03/06/07--Doctor Paul Wales tries to comfort three month old Jathushaan Kanagaratnam who is a patient in the NICU after a routine daily checkup by placing a soother back into his mouth. Kanagaratnam was diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis, a disease which occurs in newborns where the lining of the intestinal wall dies and the tissue sloughs off resulting in Short Bowel Syndrome when he was just days old.The Group for the Improvement of Intestinal Function and Treatment (GIFT) at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) headed by Doctor Paul Wales has been up and operating for three years. It is the first formal multidisciplinary team in Canada dedicated to the treatment and research of intestinal failure in children. Since the start of the GIFT program SickKids hospital has seen shorter stays in the intensive care unit, fewer complications and a decrease in the number of deaths relating to cholestatic liver disease. The GIFT program looks after patients who lack a significant portion of their bowels and require a complex combination of treatments, including surgery, parenteral nutrition and physiotherapy. Before the program patients had long hospital stays, liver damage and repeat infections. (Tara Walton/Toronto Star) (Photo by Tara Walton/Toronto Star via Getty Images)