Milan & Maureen Ilich Foundation donates $5 million to Cardiac Care at BC Children's Hospital

VANCOUVER, Jan. 25, 2013 /CNW/ - The Milan & Maureen Ilich Foundation has donated $5 million to support the creation of a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in the new BC Children's Hospital. The gift will also support the hiring of a nurse practitioner and fund the immediate purchase of medical equipment to be used in the current hospital. The donation brings the total raised in BC Children's Hospital Foundation's $200-million capital campaign, the Campaign for BC Children, to $159 million.

"Milan and Maureen Ilich were the first leadership individual donors to the Campaign for BC Children," said Teri Nicholas, president and CEO of BC Children's Hospital Foundation. "This recent gift from the Milan & Maureen Ilich Foundation signifies their unwavering commitment to the health of BC's children and builds on the tremendous legacy they have already left for BC's children."

Each year approximately 265 babies are born with heart disease in BC. In 2011, doctors at BC Children's performed 228 open-heart surgeries on children, more than half of whom were under a year old. Caregivers in the new Cardiac Intensive Care Unit will provide specialized, round-the-clock care to children with complex heart conditions.

The construction of this unit will place BC Children's Hospital among the few hospitals in North America with an area in the pediatric intensive care unit dedicated to serving children with heart problems. The nurse practitioner, whose hiring will be supported by the Milan & Maureen Ilich Foundation's gift, will help care for children recovering from heart surgery, and the life-saving equipment to be purchased will be used in the care of these children in the current Children's Hospital.

About BC Children's Hospital

BC Children's Hospital is the province's only full-service, acute-care hospital dedicated to serving close to one million children living in BC and the Yukon. All children who are seriously ill or injured are referred to Children's Hospital and are either treated at the hospital facility in Vancouver or, with consultation from Children's specialists, in their home community. In 2011 more than 81,000 children were treated at Children's Hospital. BC Children's Hospital Foundation received donations from more than 140,000 people last year and had revenues of $83 million. Funds raised by the foundation are used to support BC Children's Hospital, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children and the Child & Family Research Institute. For more information visit www.bcchf.ca and follow @BCCHF on Twitter.

About the Campaign for BC Children

Priorities of the Campaign for BC Children include construction of a new hospital - including an Emergency Department, Medical Imaging, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, operating rooms and patient rooms; the relocation of childhood development and rehabilitation services from Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children in East Vancouver to the Oak Street home of BC Children's, and Child Health BC, a BC Children's Hospital initiative that is building pediatric care capacity throughout the province. BC Children's Hospital Foundation has received campaign donations from tens of thousands of British Columbians in over 270 BC communities. To date, the community has contributed $159 million to the $200-million campaign.

SOURCE: BC Children's Hospital Foundation

Stephen Forgacs
BC Children's Hospital Foundation
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Email: [email protected]