View Single Post
  #71  
Old Posted May 24, 2007, 12:14 AM
sodak sodak is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 95
This is the first stage of the massive expansion of Sanford Hospital. Should be an interesting addition to the city.

From KELO-TV

Quote:
Groundbreaking For Sanford Children's Hospital


Sioux Falls' skyline is about to undergo a rennasaince, with the addition of turrets, spires, and colorful flags.

It may not look like it now, but in little more than 24 months, this mud pit is going to be transformed into Sanford Children's Hospital in the form of - of all things - a castle.

For more than 1,000 people - from preschoolers to pro basketball players, to corporate presidents, Wednesday was a lesson in contrasts. The machines, men and muck of a construction site with the smiles, slides and celebration of Sanford Children's groundbreaking.

Dr. Larry Fenton, retiring chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Sanford School of Medicine says, " Why a castle? Why a building? I can honeslty say to you, for those who have worked in children's hospitals, that something magical happens when a building is built that only cares for children."

But far away from the hoopla, for hospital patients like 7-year-old Madison Johnson, the most important business of the day isn't a building, it's getting better. And that is the focus of this man, Dr. Eugene Hoyme who is stepping in when Dr. Larry Fenton steps down.

He says, " I would like to envision a time when people who had children with any sort of problem would not need to leave the area to obtain those services."

The Stanford professor is joining more than 350 staffers at Sanford who gathered today beneath a flag-topped tent which will soon be eclipsed by a 5-story hospital with an area nearly 24 times it's size.

Hoyme explains, "It will be non-threatening, will be a place where families feel comfortable, parents feel comfortable being with their children in difficult times."

And while times today appeared to be all fun and games, everyone here knows the work of Sanford Children's is very serious business.

Hoyme says, "Nobody wants to be in the hospital, but we will try to make that the least painful that it can be."

Fenton says, "You know that every hour of your day, everything that you do, everything that happens in that building changes the life of a child."

Again, the doors, not a drawbridge, are expected to replace the inflatable castle with a real one in spring of 2009. In the meantime, the construction of this facility will probably never be as fun as it was Wednesday
http://www.sanfordhealth.org/AboutSa...ildrensUpdate/
Reply With Quote