Hadassah Hospital to expand pediatric bone marrow transplant unit

The Helmsley Charitable Trust awarded a $4.75 million grant to the Hadassah Medical Center on Tuesday, allowing it to expand its Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Unit.

“Hadassah Medical Organization is very grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for its vital support,” said Hadassah Director General Prof. Zeev Rotstein. “The demand for these highly specialized treatments is constantly increasing.”

Hadassah provides health care to approximately one million residents in Jerusalem and neighboring communities, including the West Bank. It’s pediatric hemato-oncology department has suffered major upheavals over the past two years when financial difficulties encouraged the Hadassah board to combine the adult and pediatric hemato-oncology departments.

Six senior physicians left in protest, followed by several pediatricians and nurses. The department has spent the last year in survival mode after the crisis.

The new expanded Pediatric BMT unit will be part of the Department of BMT and Immunotherapy headed by Prof. Polina Stepensky, a world-class pediatric hemato-oncology and BMT specialist. Her team will be composed of physicians specializing in pediatric oncology in order to provide the highest level of care to its underage patients.

Helmsley trustee Sandor Frankel said, “The Helmsley Charitable Trust is proud to support and advance this important project. The new expanded unit will enable Hadassah to provide life-saving treatments to 51 additional children every year.”

The funding is aimed at establishing and equipping the new unit, which will be located in the Sharett Institute of Oncology at Hadassah University Medical Center, in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. The completed unit will be named after Helmsley.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust has donated more than $240 million to various projects and organizations in Israel with the aim of improving healthcare infrastructure and services across the country.