The Stony Brook Children’s Hospital recently acquired a sum of money totaling over 1.57 million dollars in donations. The late Phillip and Carolyn McGrath of Port Jefferson bestowed parts of the funds upon the hospital. As part of the couple’s final request, $393, 856 will be given each to Stony Brook Children’s and to the Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities for a total of $787,712. The Simons Foundation and an anonymous donor have matched the couple’s contributions, making the 1.57 million dollars the largest donation the Cody Center has received since it opened its doors in 2001.
A portion of the funds will be used to hire a clinical investigator at the Cody Center to do research that will help patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other related disabilities. Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital’s physician-in-chief, Margaret McGovern believes the McGraths’ contribution will benefit young patients for years to come.
“Offering a facility where we can continue to provide the most advanced care for the community’s children is an enormous undertaking – and it is one we cannot do alone,” she said in a press release. “The generous and thoughtful bequest from the McGrath estate will allow us to create a higher standard of children’s healthcare, and attract pediatric specialists and research funding.”
Days after the McGrath endowment, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital received an $82,000 donation from Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC, of Smithtown, NY, which was also matched by an anonymous donor for a total of $164,000. The money will go toward an expansion project for Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. The owner of the law firm, Mark Eghrari, and his wife, Elizabeth Eghrari, previously donated $25,000 to the hospital in 2011.
Eghrari is currently the elected chair of the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital Task Force and holds a seat on the Stony Brook Medicine Development Council.
McGovern believes Eghrari’s devotion to the cause is a key part of the hospital’s success.
“I look forward to working with Mark in his new leadership role. His generosity and commitment to Stony Brook Children’s will help us meet the growing medical needs of children across Long Island” she said.
The Stony Brook Children’s Hospital is the only children’s hospital in Suffolk County, Long Island. The hospital annually cares for over 7,000 children and adolescents. The hospital employs 140 full-time pediatric doctors and surgeons in 30 different specialties and over 200 voluntary pediatric faculty members.
The Stony Brook Children’s Hospital also has the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center as well as a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program, Pediatric Cardiology Program, Pediatric HIV and AIDS Center, Cystic Fibrosis Center and the Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities.
