Year long campaign for VCU Heart Center exceeds goal

By Michael Ford
University News Services

RICHMOND, Va. – At the close of a one-year campaign, Virginia Commonwealth University has raised $8,236,240 – exceeding its goal by more than $1.4 million – for the Heart Center at the VCU Health System’s Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. The campaign provides new funding for education, clinical care and research.

Launched in spring 2000, with a $2 million challenge grant from the Theresa A. Thomas Memorial Foundation, the campaign benefited from gifts from private philanthropists, corporations, foundations and many individual donors. James C. Roberts, attorney and partner in the firm Troutman Sanders Mays & Valentine, and Charles Thalhimer, a Richmond philanthropist, co-chaired the campaign.

"The Heart Center Campaign has taught us that a close-knit cadre of visionary volunteers and donors, working hand-in-hand with our dedicated faculty, can focus fund-raising objectives on a single Center of Excellence," said VCU President, Eugene P. Trani, Ph.D.

"I am immensely pleased with the response and grateful to so many people who gave so generously of their resources to make this possible," Roberts said. "As we come to the formal end of the campaign, it is my hope that people in our area will realize we have one of the best heart centers in the country."

Cardiovascular disease is the No.1 cause of death worldwide. Every 33 seconds, someone dies of heart disease in America. Men suffer heart attacks an average of 10 years earlier than women, yet every year since 1984, cardiovascular disease has claimed more female lives than male. Today, women die of heart disease more often than the next 16 causes of death combined.

Best known for pioneering heart transplant surgery in 1968, the VCU Heart Center incorporates the Division of Cardiology, the largest division in VCU’s Department of Internal Medicine, with team members from cardiac surgery, physiology and cardiac anesthesia. Sustaining about $7 million in research funding annually, areas of clinical investigation include the cardiac catheterization lab’s work in new device development and electrophysiology’s use of next generation pacemakers to treat irregular heartbeats. There is additional research in heart muscle damage following heart attacks and in understanding the basic mechanisms of heart rhythm disturbances.

"Our goal at the VCU Heart Center is to improve the lives of people by advancing the boundaries of medicine through research and with excellent patient care," said George W. Vetrovec, M.D., chair and director of the VCU Heart Center. "This outstanding campaign provides us the funds to continue to offer the most modern patient care and to explore new treatments that will save more lives. We also are now better able to recruit excellent new faculty so that we will remain among the top heart centers in the country."

In addition to its initial gift, the Theresa Thomas Foundation also has donated $1 million to create a new endowment to support nurses and other non-physician staff of the VCU Heart Center. Other money raised during the campaign will be used to endow a $1 million cardiology chair and seven professorships. Another $2 million will fund a new chest-pain initiative, with $1.5 million more supporting research, including fellowships.

Thirty-five percent of campaign gifts came from former patients and friends of the Heart Center and the hospital. Representing 27 percent of all donors, 22 percent of gifts came from alumni and MCV Hospitals employees. Foundations accounted for 40 percent and corporate donors another three percent.

The Theresa A. Thomas Memorial Foundation was set up nearly 27 years ago by the late George Thomas to honor his wife, who was a nurse. Upon his death in 1975, Thomas left virtually his entire estate to the Foundation, with the hope that the money would make a difference in many aspects of health care.