Lohues family gives $100,000 to Lethbridge hospital cardiac campaign
The southern Alberta farming family's donation supports a new cardiac catheterization lab and ICU/CCU expansion at Chinook Regional Hospital.
Why it matters
The donation supports expanded cardiac care infrastructure that could reduce the need for southern Albertans to travel elsewhere for heart treatment.
The Lohues family, through their farming operation Coyote Flats Charolais near Chin, has donated $100,000 to the Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation's Bringing Hearts Home campaign. The gift will help fund a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and ICU/CCU expansion at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge.
Foundation officials say the donation reflects the family's history in southern Alberta, which began when parents Hank and Mary Lohues immigrated from the Netherlands in the late 1950s and started as sugar beet farmers. George Lohues said the family wanted to give back after learning about the difficulties cardiac patients, particularly seniors, face in accessing treatment close to home.
Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation CEO Crystal Elliott and Bringing Hearts Home Campaign Chair Dr. Sayeh Zielke both thanked the family for the contribution, saying it moves the campaign closer to its goal of expanding advanced cardiac care in the region.
The Bringing Hearts Home campaign has already surpassed its original $30 million fundraising target with support from more than 1,200 donors, though the Foundation says it continues to seek further donations as planning for the hospital expansion advances.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.