Shriners Children’s Ohio recently received an $11.5 million donation from an Akron-based family for its Dayton center — one of the largest donations Shriners has received for its pediatric services.
The inpatient acute care unit will use the money for pediatric burn, cleft lip and palate, and craniofacial care. The unit is housed at Dayton Children's Hospital.
Shriners Children’s health care system is 102 years old and has helped nearly 1.6 million children across the world.
This gift from the Jursich family is among the largest that Shriners has ever received, said Bethany Deines, senior director of philanthropy at Shriners Children’s Ohio.
"It's a life changing, transformational gift. It can do so much for kids and that's really our goal, is to be able to treat as many kids as possible," she said. "And that was the family's goal."
Shriners Children's Ohio Administrator Randy White attended the unveiling of the newly named Jursich Care Center on Tuesday.
He highlighted the importance of such a donation.
"It takes about $300,000 to take care of the average burn survivor," he said.
The funding from the Jursich family ensures children from around the world can now access world-class surgeries, therapies and research right in Dayton, White said.
He gave an example of a real patient who was able to get the care she needed to save her life.
"She had been in our system for three years, and they could not find a location to take care of her," he said. "It was so bad that her sinuses were infected and coming out of her forehead. Our doctors got on the case. Katie is alive today because of donations like what you all have done, marrying up with what our doctors can produce."
This funding will help Shiners offer world class care to children like Katie from close to 40 states and multiple countries, Deines said.
“What it's able to allow us to do on a go forward basis is provide just extraordinary care in the form of burn care, a cleft lip and palate, very complex craniofacial conditions and other kind of wounds and traumas," she said.
Robert Jursich Jr. attended the unveiling of the Jursich Care Center that his late father helped fund. He said his parents wanted their money to go toward giving children the best possible care they can get.
“That was a big thing in his heart, was to help kids and help as many as possible," he said. "And he was very clear about that, he didn't want to just throw money and call it a day. He wanted to make sure it went to help children.”
