$1.5M donation created OSF Treatment Suite
3/1/07 -- Paul Swiech BLOOMINGTON — Doctors and nurses at OSF St.
Joseph Medical Center are treating patients with aneurysms, strokes, carotid
artery disease or peripheral vascular disorders
using the latest technology, thanks to a donation from a community leader who
died in
November 2005.
Oscar Mandel Cohn donated more than $1.5 million to the Bloomington hospital —
the
largest gift ever received by St. Joseph, Administrator Ken Natzke said.
Hospital staff used
the money to equip its new neurovascular angiography suite. On Thursday
afternoon, the
$2.7 million suite was blessed, dedicated and named for Cohn.
“I think he’d be very proud,” his friend Elsie Kauffman said after the ceremony
attended by
about 50 people. The care that Cohn received at St. Joseph and his interest in
health care
and technology led to the gift.
The centerpiece of the suite is a biplane radiography unit that is only the
fifth of its type in
operation nationwide and the first in Central Illinois, Natzke said.
The unit contains imaging equipment with two rotating X-ray cameras that take a
variety of
pictures of a patient from various angles, explained Dr. Ajeet Gordhan, a
neuron-interventional radiologist with Bloomington Radiology who is among
sub-specialists
treating patients using the unit.
The unit takes better images than the previous equipment, allowing doctors to
see,
diagnose and treat conditions more quickly, said Lisa Zoeller, St. Joseph
director of
medical imaging.
Zoeller said about 40 patients have been treated with the unit since the suite
opened
several weeks ago.
BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal anticipates having a biplane
radiography unit
operational in summer.
