Anonymous family donates $1,000,000 to proposed Cardiac Centre of Excellence
The Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation (CRHF) and the Cardiac Sciences Advisory Cabinet have announced a donation of one million dollars from an anonymous family.
“We are astounded by this enormous gesture of generosity from this southern Alberta family,” says Crystal Elliott, CEO, Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation. “Their charitable gesture is compelling evidence of community desire to have enhanced cardiac care much closer to home.”
Officials say the proposed Cardiac Centre of Excellence will substantially elevate the standard of cardiac health care at the two southern Alberta regional hospitals located in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. The proposed improvements include a new catheterization lab (CRH), electrophysiology lab (CRH), two echocardiography labs (CRH & MHRH), cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (CRH), and computed tomography (CT) scanners (CRH & MHRH), and many new cardiac ICU beds to take pressure off existing ICU wards.
Officials say cardiac health issues are the number one killer of southern Albertans, and mortality rates are 26.6 per cent higher in this part of the province compared with the rest of Alberta. Also, the rate of heart attacks is 15.5 per cent higher than the Alberta average.
