Advisory Board helps fund new machine for Silver Cross

NEW LENOX - The Advisory Board recently gave Silver Cross Hospital $34,000, the final payment of the board's $125,000 pledge to help fund the purchase a new echocardiography machine with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) probe to perform a TEE test that uses sound waves to create high-quality moving pictures of the heart and blood vessels.

While using an echo machine, a device called a TEE probe is guided down the patient's throat and into the esophagus. The TEE probe is a specialized, flexible tube that has an ultrasound transducer at its tip that sends sound waves to the heart. As the ultrasound waves reflect off the segments of the heart, a computer in the echo machine converts them into pictures on a screen. This approach allows the doctor to get more detailed pictures of the heart because the esophagus is directly behind the heart. This test provides a close look at the heart's valves and chambers, without interference from the ribs or lungs. A TEE probe is often used when the results from typical echo tests are not adequate.

"We are very grateful to the Advisory Board for donating funds to allow the hospital to purchase state-of-art equipment that will help physicians diagnose heart and blood vessel diseases in adults and children," said Larry Johnson, Vice President of the Foundation at Silver Cross Hospital.

The Advisory Board raises funds for Silver Cross Hospital by operating a resale shop the Encore Shop. Over the past several years, the Advisory Board has donated over $1 million to Silver Cross for the purchase of X-ray equipment for the Emergency Department, ICU beds, laptop computers for Home Health nurses, dialysis and mammography equipment, surgery carts and instruments, cardiac software, blanket warmer cabinets, and a new pickup truck used to maintain the grounds of the hospital campus. The group completed a $75,000 pledge to purchase the water feature in the Dralle Serenity Garden outside the new Silver Cross Hospital.