Investment fund CEO Ken Griffin donates $25M to Nicklaus Children's Hospital to fund new surgical tower
MIAMI -- A hedge fund manager on Tuesday made a historic $25 million charitable donation to Nicklaus Children's Hospital which will allow the facility to build a new state-of-the art surgical tower.
Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel who is one of the world's richest people and a new transplant to South Florida, said he made the donation because of personal concerns.
"Ensuring that all children have access to high quality health care has been a high priority of mine for many years," he said during a news conference to announce the gift.
The facility's new five-story, 127,000-square-foot surgical tower is expected to open next year and will have 12 operating rooms, recovery and waiting rooms, officials said.
The new surgical facility will allow for the use of robotics, virtual and augmented reality, and intraoperative monitoring, as well as expansive surgical suites and improved pre- and post-surgical care spaces.
Officials said in a written statement that the center will be named the Kenneth C. Griffin Surgical Tower. It will also use cutting edge technology to treat the youngest of patients.
"Nicklaus Children's is humbled to receive a historic $25 million dollar donation," said Matthew Love, president and CEO of Nicklaus Children's Health System, the hospital's parent organization. "This transformational gift will change the future of pediatric care for generations to come and ensure that doctors, nurses, and specialists have the latest technological advances at their fingertips to treat the children we serve."
According to health system officials, Nicklaus Children's serves a diverse population of nearly half a million pediatric patients a year, including 100,000 who need emergency attention and many who require life-saving treatment and surgery. Nearly 70 percent of the hospital's patients are insured by Medicaid, and Nicklaus Children's relies on philanthropic support to provide care for its patients.
The donation means a lot to the Farrow family whose son, Kai, needed open heart surgery when he was just 2 weeks old.
"Kai started going into heart failure," said his mother, Jackie Farrow. "It was a scary time. Unfortunately, which we didn't foresee but the surgical team, the ICU team and the cardiologist all acted quickly and he had surgery. Aand now it's as if nothing happened."
"Kids in South Florida deserve the best," Love said. "They shouldn't have to leave Florida to get care and that's exactly our intention as it relates to the surgical tower."
Hospital workers and patients said the donation will save lives for years to come.
"That kind of generosity just pays it forward," said Rob Farrow, Kai's father.
