Retired Dr. John Boxell speaks with Barbie Standefer on Thursday after plans were announced for the Buz Standefer Lung Center adjacent to Memorial Hospital.Memorial Hospital's new pulmonary care center will be called the Buz Standefer Lung Center at Memorial.
The family of Standefer, who died of lung cancer in 2011, donated $1 million to the center in his memory, Memorial officials announced Thursday.
"When we were going through the lung disease, we were looking for where to go and who to turn to," said Mark McOmie, Standefer's son-in-law. "When you're doing that, you're always thinking, 'Are we doing the right thing?' We would have loved to walk into something like this."
The Standefer family has been touched by lung disease in many ways including cancer, emphysema, asthma and cystic fibrosis, said Barbie Standefer, Standefer's widow. Donating money to the lung center seemed like the perfect fit for the family, she said.
The Buz Standefer Lung Center is part of the hospital's $318 million expansion. It will provide centralized care featuring lung screening and diagnostic tools, including a digital chest X-ray, a testing lab, the latest ultrasound technology and a team of doctors and nurses to help coordinate patient care.
Many of the tools previously were available only in Nashville or Atlanta, said Dr. Davey Daniel, a Memorial oncologist. By combining the new center's technology with things such as bronchial ultrasounds, which are already available at Memorial, doctors will be better able to determine the stage and treatment for lung cancer.
Other donors to the center include Mr. and Mrs. Bob Shaw, Rich and Barbara Kramer, the Schmissrauter Family Foundation and Hilda and Lee Murray.