The campaign to grow WVU Medicine Children’s is just over one-third complete as donors have
given $23 million of th
e $60 million needed in private funding.
“If you can, you’ve got to support WVU (Medicine Children’s),” said Joshua Tamases,
whose son Phineas was a recent patient at the hospital. “If you are able to make
a donation, if you are able to make a substantial donation to it, you may not
even know what effect it’s going to have on a family, but it will have an effect
and you can feel good about that."
Phineas Tamases was born with sagittal craniosynostosis, which required surgery
to correct the shape of his head and allow for normal brain growth. Joshua and
his wife Mackenzie were referred to plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Aaron Mason with WVU Medicine Children’s.
“
It’s a pretty emotionally raw moment when you see your three-month-old child going
in to have skull surgery,” Joshua Tamases said. “He knew that we were freaking
out. And so the last thing I said to him, through the tears, was, ‘Dr. Mason,
take care of my son.’ He was like, ‘okay.’ He really made me feel like, ‘alright,
this guy’s got it.’”
After successful surgery, the Tamases family noticed a difference immediately in
the shape of their son’s head.
“Our son now has a normal shaped head,” Joshua Tamases said. “He will not get made
fun of. He won’t have learning problems, because there could have been pressure
in the wrong place.
“Any number of problems could have happened, but won’t happen now, because of the
doctors, nurses and support staff at WVU Medicine Children’s and how do you quantify
that? How do you thank them enough?”
A
s the ever-increasing demand for pediatric and maternal health care in the state
continues to climb, WVU Medicine Children’s needs to grow with a new, 150-bed,
nine-story tower, scheduled to be completed in early 2021.
“
We’re in borrowed space, simply because we don’t have a lot of space, we’re sharing
it with other pediatric services, as they are sharing with us,” Dr. Mason said.
“Our ability to move into a space that’s ours, evolve our own programming to
a more refined way of care delivery is huge.”
The new WVU Medicine Children’s tower will include:
• Diagnostic imaging and a laboratory
• Operating rooms, cardiac catherization, interventional radiology and endoscopy
facilities
• A 34-bed Pediatric Acute Care Unit, including six beds available for hematology/
oncology
• A 31-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with six beds available
for epilepsy monitoring
• A 54-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
• A 30-bed birthing center
• A medical office building, cancer institute, heart and vascular institute,
and maternal fetal medicine clinics
Consider making a gift to the “Grow Children’s” campaign and join the thousands of people who are making
the new hospital a reality.
Individuals or businesses interested in supporting campaign can contact Cindy Liberatore,
681-285-9239, cynthia.liberatore@wvumedicine.org. Naming opportunities are available.