E-Newsletter

A Record-Setting Gift

Sent on Friday, December 20, 2013

Jack Nicklaus has long been a proponent of giving back, and he and his wife Barbara, have been strong supporters of numerous charitable causes over the years. Of course, giving back to their hometown of Columbus always has been important. It’s hardly a surprise, then, that the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance, which Jack founded in 1976, has not only produced great entertainment, compelling winners, and memorable moments, but also has served the people of central Ohio well beyond the boundaries of Muirfield Village Golf Club.

To that end, a portion of the proceeds from the Memorial is passed on to central Ohio charities each year, principally the Tournament’s primary beneficiary, Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

During a reception earlier this month, the Tournament presented Nationwide Children’s with a record-setting check, from the 2013 Memorial, in the amount of $1,150,000 in support of the hospital’s Memorial Tournament Level III Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  

Support from the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance via the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and its special alliance with Nationwide Children’s Hospital helps make the special services offered in the Memorial Tournament NICU possible, plus much more.

For instance, once a patient arrives at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, they receive specialized care from the hospital staff. There are more than 190 beds dedicated to newborn care in the NICU and Newborn Special Care Units (NSCU). The hospital staff specializes in helping infants with complex birth defects, severe prematurity and other complications of pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Each year, the staff at Nationwide Children’s Hospital cares for more than 2,100 premature infants.

Nationwide Children’s has designed special rooms in the NICU to facilitate the sensory development of premature babies. There are large, open windows to help infants’ visual development, and the private rooms have extra space to accommodate the occupational and physical therapy sessions that the infants need. They are also set up to allow for the patents to stay with their infants, helping to prepare for the transition home.

The Small Baby Pods, a 10-bed unit that provides a quiet environment and controlled lighting within the NICU, are designed for infants 8-28 days old. These babies receive specialized care by specifically trained nurses and respiratory specialists.

All of these special accommodations are part of the Small Baby Guidelines developed by the staff at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to help treat the tiniest of babies. These guidelines, which detail the care regimen for premature babies in the areas of development, nutrition, cardiovascular functioning, infection and other possible health concerns, are used throughout the United States.