Local businessman Gene Reed, Jr. joined Medical University of South Carolina Health CEO Patrick J. Cawley, M.D. and other MUSC Children’s Health leaders in the current children’s hospital atrium to present $5 million in support of the pediatric heart treatment program and inpatient floor in the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, located on the Charleston peninsula. The new hospital is set to open for patients in the fall of 2019.

“I saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help some of the most vulnerable patients who come to MUSC for medical help: children with heart problems,” Reed said. “It’s an honor to be involved with something that will have such an important impact on the lives of these young people and their families.”

A donor to the MUSC Children’s Hospital since 1996 with gifts totaling more than $250,000, Reed listened closely to his own heart when deciding how to further support children and their families in the new facility. In recognition of this transformative gift, the children’s heart program floor in the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital will be named for him. Reed has a track record for supporting children’s causes, including organizations such as Camp Boggy Creek, Darkness to Light, the Boys & Girls Club, and Save the Children.

“We are incredibly grateful for this gift and what it means for our patients and their families,” Cawley said. “Since the late 1980s, our children’s heart program has cared for all children in the state of South Carolina who need complex, high-quality heart treatments, interventions, and monitoring. Mr. Reed’s support of this important program demonstrates a real commitment to the health and wellness of children in the Lowcountry and beyond.”

When children have a serious heart condition, they need highly specialized care delivered by an entire team of medical, surgical, and support staff with extensive experience in intensive-care settings. MUSC Children’s Hospital has been consistently recognized as having one of the best children’s heart programs in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, with patient outcomes that rival or are superior to any other children’s heart center in the world. Although it treats the most lethal and complex heart defects, the program maintains a 30-day operative survival rate of 99 percent. Annually, the program’s providers perform more than 400 surgeries and 600 cardiac catheterizations.

The new facility’s Gene Reed Jr. Heart Floor will encompass the most comprehensive children’s heart center in South Carolina, including two catheterization/electrophysiology suites and two cardiac-specific operating suites. It also will allow for hybrid catheterization procedures for the diagnosis and advanced treatment of children born with congenital heart defects. Designed to promote family-centered healing, the new floor will offer private rooms, comfortable furniture, sleepers and other amenities for visiting family. The floor also will include three child life rooms where children can relax and play while not undergoing treatment.