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Oklahoma City
OKLAHOMA CITY – New gifts totaling nearly $4 million from The Meinders Foundation will continue pushing health care forward in Oklahoma, while cementing Herman Meinders’ legacy as the largest individual donor in Mercy’s history.
The gifts were celebrated Wednesday during a blessing and ribbon cutting for expanded neurological care space funded in large part by another donation from Meinders.
“Herman Meinders was truly a giant in health care for Oklahoma,” said Steve Mackin, Mercy president and CEO. “His generosity, rooted in his Christian faith, benefits patients every day and will continue to do so for generations to come. Our caregivers are honored and blessed to be entrusted as custodians of his legacy.”
The gifts pushed Meinders’ lifetime giving to Mercy to more than $24 million, making him the largest donor across all five states Mercy serves.
Gifts for Neurological and Pulmonary Care
Mercy celebrated the announcement of two gifts from The Meinders Foundation on Wednesday. A donation of $3 million will fund an expansion of the Meinders Center for Movement Disorders, and a $700,000 gift will fund a minimally invasive system for lung biopsies.
“We can’t begin to measure the number of people who have benefited from the selfless generosity of Herman Meinders,” said Lori Cummins, vice president of Mercy Health Foundation Oklahoma City Communities. “His impact has been transformational.”
The $3 million project at the Meinders Center for Movement Disorders will expand it to occupy all of the clinical space on the ground floor of the Meinders NeuroScience Institute on the main campus of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. Dr. Cherian “Dr. K” Karunapuzha and the caregivers at the movement disorders center have specialized training and access to advanced technology to handle conditions like Parkinson’s disease, tremors, restless leg syndrome, spasticity and much more.
The new lung biopsy system uses an extremely thin and pliable catheter to collect tissue samples. It allows for a minimally invasive biopsy instead of waiting for scans months later to check for growth which in turn catches cancer earlier.
The new space on the third floor of the Meinders NeuroScience Institute will officially open to serve patients on Sept. 8. The space, made possible thanks to a $1 million gift from Herman Meinders last November, expands access to Mercy’s award-winning neurological care to more patients.
Meinders and Mercy
Since 2018, more than $24 million in donations by Herman and LaDonna Meinders have transformed health care in Oklahoma.
The Kathryn Ann Meinders Digestive Health Institute, named in honor of Meinders’ daughter, is less than a year away from opening. The $10 million donation that made the facility possible is the largest in a long list of major gifts from Herman Meinders to Mercy.
Meinders’ donations contributed to the resounding success of the Meinders NeuroScience Institute, helping make Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City the top-ranked neurological hospital in the state and among the nation’s best.
Meinders’ gift of a new CT imaging machine in the hospital’s Emergency Department propelled Mercy to the No. 1 rank nationally in door-to-needle time for stroke patients, ensuring that stroke patients receive the fastest-possible care at a time when every second counts.
Another major contribution went to Mercy’s Love Family Women’s Center.
About Herman Meinders
Herman Meinders was born in Pipestone, Minnesota, and attended Oklahoma City University in the 1950s.
He went on to start American Floral Services, an early success story in the international flowers-by-wire business. It grew to include 23,000 member florists in the U.S. and Canada and 50,000 worldwide. Meinders sold the company in 1994, and it merged with Teleflora in 2000.
Inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1998, Meinders became well known for far-reaching philanthropical gifts supporting education, faith-based organizations, the arts, major civic projects and much more.
Meinders died in March at age 87.
