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KU Hospital gets $1M gift for eight-story addition

Photo by University of Kansas Hospital Cambridge North Tower at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., will include 12 operating rooms.
Photo by University of Kansas Hospital Cambridge North Tower at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., will include 12 operating rooms.

By Dan Margolies

Dr. William Reed and his wife, Mary, have donated $1 million toward completion of an addition to the University of Kansas Hospital, KU announced Friday.

Reed is chairman of the hospital’s cardiovascular diseases department and helped re-establish its heart transplant program in 2012 with a $1.5 million donation. The addition, the Cambridge North Tower, is under construction just northeast of the hospital complex in Kansas City, Kan.

When completed in 2017, the 92-bed, eight-story facility will include 12 operating rooms and house two of the hospital’s fastest-growing specialties, neurosciences and surgical oncology, KU said in a news release.

So far the hospital has raised $38.6 million of the $100 million it hopes to receive from private philanthropic sources. The entire project was estimated last year to cost $279 million.

Civic leader Annette Bloch announced a $10 million challenge grant in November. Including the Reeds’ contribution, KU said it had raised nearly $5.84 million toward the challenge. The building also will include imaging and lab facilities as well as a pharmacy.

Reed, 87, and his wife donated $1 million toward construction of the hospital’s cardiovascular surgery center, which is named after them, in 2003. He recently wrote a book, “The Pulse of Hope: A Surgeon’s Memoirs from Poverty to Prosperity.”

Dan Margolies is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

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