Couple give $2-million gift to hospital

Two experiences at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center stick out in the minds of Howard and Hycy Hill, a Glendale couple who have considered the Burbank hospital their medical home for 53 years.

The first was the birth of their daughter, also named Hycy, more than five decades ago, a fond memory that initiated a long-standing relationship between the Hills and the hospital, they said. The second memory is recent and more disconcerting — Howard Hill had to be treated at the center in August for a stroke.

But what the hospital’s medical community will likely connect to their own memories of the Hills is not the couple’s medical history. More likely, hospital staff and other patients will think of the $2-million gift the couple recently contributed for the center’s planned Neuroscience Institute.

The donation, which hospital officials announced Monday, is the largest thus far to a project that is estimated to cost $11 million and open in 2010, hospital spokesman Dan Boyle said.

The institute will focus on care and treatment of victims of stroke, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.

“Our goal is to become recognized as a comprehensive neuroscience institute, that we’re capable of meeting the needs of the population in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas,” said Patrice Hallak, the hospital’s service area director for neurosciences, orthopedics and rehabilitation.

The new facility, which is to be on the fourth floor of the center’s north tower, will benefit patients by concentrating neurology treatment in one hospital wing, Hallak said.

“Currently, we don’t have one central area for these services,” she said. “By centralizing you can really specialize your staff, which is important because these patients need very specific services.”

When Howard Hill underwent his stroke treatment, he became one of the approximately 500 stroke victims treated at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center annually, Boyle said. Another 1,000 patients are treated for the other neurological conditions that are slated for future treatment in the new facility, which will be named after the Hills, Boyle said.

It was Howard Hill’s personal experience as a stroke patient that ultimately led the couple to make their contribution, Howard Hill said.

As an 18-year member of the hospital’s board, and former chief executive officer of a Burbank-based manufacturing company, Hill, with wife Hycy, had donated $1 million in previous gifts to the institution before contributing to the neuroscience institute.

“We’ve been supportive of the hospital to a lot of degrees, but nothing of this magnitude,” Howard Hill said.