A general hospital in California has just received the biggest donor from a private individual to a health care facility run by the government: $75 million.
And the money came from none other than Facebook's founder Mack Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The donation was intended for San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
The hospital under the city's public health department, it turns out, is very close to the power couple, especially to Chan, who worked for her medical residency in its floors. Chan is currently working as a doctor in a pediatric unit in the Bay Area. She completed her undergraduate studies from Harvard University, where she met Zuckerberg, then her medical degree in University of California San Francisco. The two dated for almost a decade before tying the knot in 2012 in their home's backyard in Palo Alto.
The health care facility is also the only one in San Francisco to have a level 1 trauma center that can serve victims of gunshots and plane crashes, as well as an emergency room to those who need immediate psychiatric help. It also serves some of the poorest people in the area.
According to Chan, who, with her husband, was not present during the hospital's press conference on Friday, February 6, she saw through her personal experience how the hospital provides important trauma and health care services to anyone who lives and travels in San Francisco.
The money will be used to help in the expansion of a facility in Mission District. Although the hospital has already raised $887 million through a bond that has already been approved by votes, they needed more to add rooms.
The mayor Ed Lee is reported to be overjoyed for the private donation especially since he believes that the hospital offers great care even to the poorest sector of the area, yet the government is not capable of funding everything it needs.
