BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Buffalo Bills are celebrating a huge win after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. On Monday afternoon, Josh Allen was back in Buffalo at Oishei Children’s Hospital, celebrating a big donation from West Herr to the Patricia Allen Fund.
Less than 24 hours after beating the Chiefs and on the first day of the bye week, Allen celebrated another victory for the staff and patients at Oishei. West Herr announced they donated $2,000,017 to the Patricia Allen Fund, which was established in honor of Allen’s late grandmother. The fund provides needed donations to a variety of departments at Oishei. The donation is the largest single donation to the fund to date.
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“The gift it’s not a small one I can tell you that. West Herr has donated $2,000,017 to the Patricia Allen Fund,” Allen announced. “It gives me chills thinking about what West Herr is doing for the hospital here.”
The donation, which includes $17 in honor of Allen’s number, was also donated on October 17. West Herr’s donation has made new state of the art technology available at the hospital, including a neurosurgery microscope that a surgeon had been hoping for.
Oishei Children’s named the walkway between the hospital, Gates Vascular Institute and Buffalo General Medical Center the ‘West Herr Campus Crossway’ to commemorate the donation.
West Herr President and CEO Scott Bieler said he had lunch with some staff members and physicians at Oishei. That’s where he met Dr. Renee Reynolds, who is an attending neurosurgeon at Oishei and assistant professor at University at Buffalo. Bieler asked Reynolds what she needs the most to continue her work and she mentioned the microscope.
“What seems like not too expensive, a microscope, turns out to be $750,000. My response to that was, ‘Oh’,” Bieler said. “We felt this could be the West Herr way of starting something significant with the Oishei Children’s Foundation.”
Dr. Reynolds hugged that new piece of equipment the moment she saw it in her operating room. She says it symbolizes hope for her patients.
“That was a genuine reaction. I didn’t know it was going to be there that day and it’s like seeing your family member you haven’t seen forever walk through the airport doors. I was so genuinely excited about it being here,” Dr. Reynolds said.
She added the hospital largely runs on donations like this one and she is grateful to be a member of the team.
“Even from the people who clean the floors to change the linens to bringing the food for the patients, we’re all part of a team. And it may not be the same as those on the football team, but we get our job done here because we all work together, we all respect each other and we coordinate that for one goal and purpose which is to take good care of the children,” Dr. Reynolds concluded.
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Allen said he’s grateful to the fans who have supported the hospital fund named in memory of his grandmother. In 2020, Allen’s grandmother, Patricia, passed away. Allen played in a critical game against the Seattle Seahawks the same week and won the game. After fans learned about this, they began donating and the Patricia Allen Fund was born. He called the donations an act of compassion that means so much to his family.