Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital announced today it received $10 million from a private Bay Area foundation that wishes to remain anonymous.
The gift is the most significant single donation in the history of the Sequoia Hospital Foundation. It will help fund substantial renovations in the hospital’s pioneering Heart and Vascular Institute, according to the hospital.
Dr. Hardwin Mead, physician leader at Sequoia Hospital’s Heart and Vascular Institute, said advancements planned for the institute’s cardiac electrophysiology laboratories “will measurably advance cardiovascular care at Sequoia — allowing us to continue providing state-of-the-art technology for cardiac procedures and helping patients achieve their therapeutic goals in the most efficient and safe manner possible.”
The donation is particularly welcome at a time when Sequoia Hospital has had to divert financial resources to the COVID-19 response.
“While the hospital continues to offer the same advanced, award-winning cardiac care for which it is well known, it cannot at this time fund updates to non-COVID- 19 hospital programs and projects,” according to the hospital. “At this challenging time, community donations such as this one are essential to a hospital’s operations and ability to provide high-quality, world-class care to the community.”
Sequoia Hospital’s electrophysiology program was founded in 1984 to treat cardiac arrhythmias. In recent years, the program established Sequoia as the first facility on the West Coast to implant leadless pacemaker technology, and the first on the West Coast to implement a type of irrigated ablation catheter that can resolve irregular heartbeat after only one treatment, according to Sequoia.
“To date, Sequoia ’s electrophysiology program has performed more than 6,000 ablations for atrial fibrillation and more than 10,000 cardiac ablations in total,” Dignity Health said.
Photo credit: Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital
