Spanos Donates $15M to Mercy General Hospital for Cardiac Care Center

Sacramento's Mercy General Hospital has received a $15 million donation
-- "believed to be the largest individual donation ever made" to a hospital in the city -- from San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos to help build a "state-of-the-art" cardiac care center, the Sacramento Bee reports. The Alex Spanos Heart Center, which may open in 2007, will provide additional operating rooms, catheter labs and intensive care beds for the 287-bed hospital. Spanos' donation, along with an additional $5 million in private donations, "supports" a $40 million Heart Center capital campaign. Mercy General and parent company Catholic Healthcare West also will contribute $30 million for "construction and equipment" for the heart center. Spanos said that the quality of care he received during a coronary bypass operation at Mercy General last August "inspired" his donation. Spanos said, "When I heard about the hospital's plans to further enhance their services and enlarge existing facilities so that superior cardiac care is available to many more area residents, I felt compelled to support the project." Thomas Petersen, president of Mercy General, said, "We are pleased Mr. Spanos chose Mercy General for his surgery and that he feels strongly enough about his personal experience and our outstanding program that he has chosen to give generously to this project." The hospital performs about 1,700 open heart surgeries and more than 4,000 cardiac catheter procedures each year (Rapaport, Sacramento Bee, 12/13).