Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland Celebrates $9.8 Million Gift for Bone Marrow Transplant Research

Hurt by Low Reimbursements and Economic Downturn, Hospital Cuts Expenditures, Lays off 17 Employees

June 2, 2009

Oakland, Calif.– Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is celebrating a $9.8 million gift to fund research in cellular therapies such as bone marrow and cord blood transplantation. Children’s president and CEO, Frank Tiedemann will honor donor Mrs. Dolores Jordan at Children’s Hospital Oakland’s research center on Thursday, June 11. “We are grateful for this generous gift that will allow the life-saving cellular research already happening here at Children’s to continue and expand,” said Tiedemann. “The Jordan family’s legacy will fund research that may significantly alter children’s health care—saving the lives of children here in the East Bay, as well as across the country, and throughout the world.”

Mrs. Jordan made this donation on behalf of her late husband, Mr. Hanabul “Bud” Jordan, and her late brother-in-law, Mr. Lowell Jordan, all longtime East Bay residents. Mrs. Jordan continues to live in Hayward where Mr. Bud Jordan owned a construction business. Mr. Lowell Jordan lived in nearby Dublin where he ran the family’s cattle ranch. The sale of the Jordan ranch funded the sizable gift.

The Jordan family began donating to Children’s Hospital Oakland 20 years ago. The hospital’s Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) program received donations from the family in 1999 and 2000. Over the years, the Jordan family has contributed more than $420,000 to Children’s programs and this extraordinary gift pushed their cumulative giving to well over $10 million.

“Fundraisers often talk about ‘transformative’ gifts and sometimes exaggerate the importance of a particular gift. In this case, however, it is no exaggeration to say that the Jordan family gift is truly transformative for the research program at Children’s,” said Brad Barber, Children’s chief development officer.

Bert Lubin, MD, senior vice president, research, agrees. “The Jordan family funds will create innumerable opportunities for Children’s to conduct research that will broaden the scope and impact of our internationally-recognized Blood and Marrow Transplant program,” said Dr. Lubin. “This gift will support research that will advance the field of cellular therapies and allow us to recruit a senior stem cell scientist. This gift will also enable us to build upon the success of our present basic, clinical and translational research investigators and compete for funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and other governmental and private funding sources.”

Future cellular therapy research may focus on treatments for diabetes, lung injury, Crohn’s disease and brain damage caused by oxygen shortages during childbirth, said Dr. Lubin.

Children’s Hospital Oakland intends to use the Jordan’s donation to establish the Jordan Family Center for Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Research, in addition to endowing several chairs in related fields. Bone marrow and cord blood transplantations are used to treat a variety of diseases including childhood cancers, hereditary blood disorders, such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia, and acquired bone marrow failure diseases. Children’s BMT program, a world-class program with expertise in all areas of hematopoietic cell transplantation, has performed 145 transplant procedures.


CONTACT:
Diana Yee
510-428-3120
dyee@mail.cho.org

About Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland
Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is Northern California’s only freestanding and independent children’s hospital. Children’s is the leader in many pediatric specialties including neonatology, cardiology, neurosurgery and intensive care. The hospital is a designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center and has the largest pediatric critical care facility in the region. Children’s Hospital has 190 licensed beds, more than 200 hospital-based physicians in 30 specialties, more than 2,700 employees and an operating budget of $312 million. Children’s research arm, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, has approximately 300 staff members and an annual budget of more than $49 million. The National Institutes of Health is the research institute’s primary funding source. The institute is a leader in translational research, developing new vaccines for infectious diseases and discovering new treatment protocols for previously fatal or debilitating conditions such as cancers, sickle cell disease and thalassemia, diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, pediatric obesity, nutritional deficiencies, birth defects, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.

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