CLEVELAND – Connie and Jim Brown formerly of Shaker Heights, Ohio, now of Piqua, Ohio and Savannah, Georgia, are donating $2 million to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in honor of their oldest granddaughter, KC Bryan-White, who is a survivor of cystic fibrosis (CF) and is 28 years old.
“KC recently gave birth to her first child, Mac, our first great-grandchild, and we wanted to honor this special gift to our family with a gift to Rainbow,” said Connie Brown. “Without the physicians at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, KC wouldn’t be alive today, and certainly wouldn’t be healthy enough to have children. We are blessed to have this special institution in our backyard.”
Scientists at Rainbow and its academic affiliate, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, are among the world’s most innovative researchers, developing new treatments and leading the search for a cure for CF. Rainbow sees the majority of Ohio’s CF patients, and their Leroy W. Matthews Cystic Fibrosis Center is fully accredited with the highest possible rating by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Cystic Fibrosis is the second most common life-shortening, childhood onset inherited disorder in the United Sates. CF affects breathing and digestion. It causes the body to make thick, sticky mucus that clogs the airways of the lungs, and it can prevent the pancreas from doing its job to help digest food. In people with CF, the sweat glands also make very “salty” sweat. There is no cure for CF.
The $2 million gift includes $1 million to support the Connie and Jim Brown Chair in Pediatric Pulmonary Survivorship. The gift will be matched by $500,000 from the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Foundation. The chair is in honor of and gratitude for physician, Pamela B. Davis, MD, PhD, who has treated KC for many years. Dr. Davis is a highly regarded expert in CF care and research, and she was recently appointed dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
“Under Dr. Davis’ direction, great strides have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of lung disorders and diseases,” said Fred C. Rothstein, MD, CEO, University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “In the 1950s and 1960s, the median life expectancy of someone with CF was five to 10 years of age. Thanks to continued research and support from people like the Brown’s, today it is over 35 years old.”
“Dr. Davis is a phenomenal physician,” said KC Bryan-White. “She cares not only about the health of her patients, but also about her patients as people. She turned my health around, and has given me hope for a future I thought I might never have.”
“This is a tremendous honor, and I am grateful to the Brown family for their generosity and vision,” said Dr. Davis. “It is a great privilege to strive every day to live up to their faith in us.”
The additional $1 million will go towards the funding of a new, dedicated clinical and research space for cystic fibrosis at Rainbow. Currently, there is a diagnostic center at Rainbow, the KC and Ginny Bryan Pulmonary Diagnostic Center, established with the help of a previous gift from the Brown family, and there is a CF clinic at UH’s Landerbrook facility which provides additional services. The new CF space at the hospital will provide patients and their families a continuum of care and access to all diagnostic services, acute care needs and administrative services in one location.
“This new space will allow us to bring our multidisciplinary teams together to care for our CF patients and provide a much more streamlined process for families,” said Dr. Davis. “These families face so much every day, and we are thrilled to be able to offer them additional services and support.”