Atrium lands $1 million donation for new children’s center at renovated medical plaza
Atrium Health received a $1 million donation to advance the care of patients with rare diseases at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital, the hospital system announced Monday.
Charlotte-based Ward’s Foundation co-founders Caroline and Trey Winslett made the donation in honor of their son Ward Winslett, who died due to a rare disease in 2020, soon after his first birthday.
Ward was diagnosed with Type II Gaucher’s Disease when he was 7 months old. The rare type of genetic disorder is usually fatal by age 2 according to a statement by Atrium.
“And so began our diagnostic odyssey,” Caroline Winslett said in a statement. “It was an incredibly traumatic experience, and what we learned is that when a rare disease strikes, it takes a village.”
The donation will help create the Ward Winslett Center for Pediatric Rare Disease on the sixth floor of the Levine’s Medical Plaza, according to Atrium.
The medical plaza is undergoing a complete renovation, schedule to be completed in the next two years.
The outpatient center will serve more than 40 counties, according to Atrium. The Ward Winslett Center will open in 2024.
Other Atrium expansions
Renovations at the Levine’s Medical Plaza are just one of the ongoing expansion efforts at Atrium, Charlotte’s largest hospital system.
The system opened its first new hospital in decades earlier this month, Atrium Health Union West, in Stallings.
And in 2020, Atrium Health announced it had officially combined with Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest School of Medicine. That combination paved the way for plans for a four-year medical school in Charlotte.
Charlotte is the largest city in the country without a four-year medical school, according to Atrium.
The school will be built in Charlotte’s Midtown area, less than a mile away from Atrium’s flagship location Carolinas Medical Center in Dilworth
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 10:25 AM.
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