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HMHP, community leaders dedicate Joanie Abdu breast-care center
Photo
Ami Setterberg, left, and Lisa Hughes stand beside the Luma Gem Gamma Camera during a tour of the new $8 million center. The camera is an example of the state-of-the-art technology installed in the center.
YOUNGSTOWN
The Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast-care center, a dream 18 years in the making, became reality Wednesday with the dedication of the $8 million facility on the Belmont Avenue Campus of St. Elizabeth Health Center.
The Joanie Abdu Center is scheduled to open for patients Nov. 14. Construction on the 14,000-square-foot facility began in April 2011 and was completed Oct. 21.
“Eighteen years ago, when Joanie was in her death bed from breast cancer, I promised her this day. It was a dream. Now it is real,” said Dr. Rashid Abdu, Joanie’s husband.
Mrs. Abdu died of breast cancer June 2, 1994.
The Rev. George V. Murry, bishop of the Youngstown Diocese, gave the invocation and the closing and presided over the dedication ceremony.
Speaking to his wife, Dr. Abdu said: “Joanie, because of the generosity, love and commitment of the Humility of Mary Health Partners and a generous and caring community, I am no longer dreaming. I am here to humbly and gratefully dedicate this magnificent facility to your memory, to the memory of all those women who joined you, and in honor of the survivors.”
Dr. Abdu thanked many people and organizations for making the center a reality, but singled out the vision and dedication of Robert Shroder, HMHP president and chief executive officer, and James Schultis, CEO of the HMHP Development Foundation, for praise.
“If it were not for Bob and Jim, we would have waited another 18 years for this to happen,” Dr. Abdu said.
Shroder said the Sisters of Humility of Mary built St. Elizabeth Hospital 100 years ago because they saw a community need to treat the sick and the injured. The Joanie Abdu Center is another example of St. Elizabeth addressing an unmet need in the community.
The Mahoning Valley has the highest incident rate for breast cancer in Ohio and the highest mortality rate for breast cancer in an urban area in the state.
“We believe these are facts because the area needs better access and better medical techniques to detect and treat breast disease earlier. This center will do both of those things,” Shroder said.
Shroder praised Dr. Abdu for “pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing” to get the project under way and done in a first-class manner.
Shroder said the day was special because of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center named after Dr. Abdu’s wife, but also because it was Dr. Abdu’s birthday.
Dedication of the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast-care center is exciting for the community and puts a huge exclamation point to the St. Elizabeth centennial, said Don Koenig, executive vice president of operations for HMHP.
The project consists of renovation of 12,000 square feet of the former outpatient surgery center that faces Park Avenue; construction of a new entrance to the facility; and state-of-the-art digital mammography, MRI and radiology equipment.
In preparing for the construction, Moyer Park, the green-space hillside between the main hospital and the Ambulatory Care Center, which included a fitness track, trees and commemorative rock, was moved to street level and a parking lot dedicated to the breast-cancer center put in its place. Also, a healing garden on the west side of the building was part of the plan.
The center will provide a single location for patients seeking diagnostic and other services without needing to visit several departments within the main hospital. Though it will not have surgery, radiation and chemotherapy facilities, they are available on the campus.
“What a great day,” said Dr. Nancy Gantt, co-medical director of the Joanie Abdu Center with Dr. Ralph Perrico.
Dr. Gantt said the center will provide an atmosphere of comfort and healing and calm and the most up-to-date care and technology for women and men, all without having to leaving town. It will also raise the bar for breast care in all of Northeast Ohio, she added.