Loyola Medicine has raised more than $250,000 in donations to philanthropic funds to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Loyola officials created the Loyola Medicine COVID-19 Medical Response Fund to buy and lease medical equipment, supplies and technology, and a Colleague Assistance Fund to help employees who experience financial hardship during the economic shutdown.
The first and largest donor as of April 17 is a Hinsdale family, said Sheryl Cash, a Loyola spokeswoman.
Chris Birck, a Hinsdale Central alumnus, whose parents Kay and the late Michael Birck started the Birck Family Fund, said his mother was a nurse for a Hinsdale medical practice and his father was treated for leukemia at Loyola Medical Center about five years ago.
“Even before the coronavirus, healthcare has always had a special place in their hearts and that has trickled down to me,” Chris Birck said.
He and his mother, who was at home in Hinsdale recovering from back surgery about five weeks ago, were watching the news about how people in Italy and Asia were suffering from the coronavirus.
“You could just see they were all exhausted,” Birck said. They knew it was only a matter of time before the same situation occurred in the United States.
“That was why we wanted to get out in front of it,” Birck said.
Birck did not want to specify the amount of the donation, but said it was split evenly between the two funds.
Employees of Loyola Medicine can apply to the colleague assistance fund to receive support for specific expenses, such as childcare, housing or other living expenses, Cash said.
The medical response fund is used to rent ventilators, buy personal protective gear, testing kits, lab instruments and technology for doctors to conduct online visits with patients in quarantine.
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Loyola Medicine includes Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park and MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn.
“Philanthropic support from our community is essential to help ensure our hospitals remain in a constant state of readiness now and in the future, and to support our caregivers who are on the front lines of this pandemic,” Loyola Medicine President and Chief Executive Officer Shawn Vincent said in a statement.
The Birck Family Fund, which is part of the Chicago Community Trust, also donated money to Hinsdale Hospital in the Amita Health system, requesting it be spent where the need is greatest, Birck said.