The Queen’s Medical Center Receives $1.6 Million Gift for the Expansion of its Life-Saving Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program

HONOLULU, May 15, 2025 – The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has donated $1.6 million to support the expansion of The Queen’s Medical Center & Clarence T.C. Ching ECMO Program (Queen’s).

Currently, Queen’s has a program that utilizes ECMO machines as part of the therapy options to help patients whose lungs and/or heart are unable to function on their own. The machines pump and oxygenate the patient’s blood, allowing the lungs and heart to rest and recover. This comprehensive treatment program also involves education, outreach, and social support for these critically ill patients and their families.

The $1.6 million donation will enable Queen’s to:

  • Expand and enhance its lifesaving ECMO Program through the purchase of additional equipment
  • Establish Queen’s as an Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Center of Excellence, which can improve patient outcomes and increase survival rates; provide specialized training, education, and research opportunities for health care professionals; and contribute knowledge and expertise in ECMO
  • Transition towards a two-physician cannulation model which can enhance patient safety, improve quality of care, and allow for better collaboration between physicians and ECMO team
  • Conduct a viability study to ensure responsible, sustainable growth for remote capabilities and neighbor-island expansion, providing expertise throughout the State of Hawai‘i

“ECMO can save the lives of some of the sickest patients and should be included in the standard of cardiac care when appropriate,” said Walter Panzirer, a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “We are dedicated to helping The Queen’s Medical Center expand access to this lifesaving therapy and continue to provide the most advanced care to patients with severe heart or lung failure.”

“Our ECMO Program has saved the lives of dozens of patients since its inception in 2017,” said Dr. Whitney Limm, The Queen’s Health Systems Executive Vice President of Clinical Integration and Chief Physician Executive. “And not only do these patients survive, many go on to have a very good quality of life. Had our ECMO Program not existed, these patients may not have survived.”

“We are deeply grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for their generosity in supporting our ECMO Program, and for their commitment to supporting high quality health care to the people of Hawaiʻi,” said Jason Chang, The Queen’s Health Systems President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are constantly looking for innovative treatment options for our patients and this is one way of demonstrating our strong commitment of having the best equipment and highly trained staff to treat the sickest patients in our community.”

The Helmsley Charitable Trust continues its commitment to Queen’s and the people of Hawaiʻi. Today’s announcement builds on Helmsley’s $5 million grant made last month to The Queen’s Medical Center – West O‘ahu Cancer Center that will fund a 2,500-square-foot expansion, add three infusion bays and six exam rooms, and allow the hospital to accommodate 20 percent more patients.

# # #

The Queen’s Health Systems (QHS) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1985 to provide expanded health care capabilities to the people of Hawai‘i and the Pacific Basin. It is Hawai‘i’s preeminent family of health care-related companies, and has more than 9,500 employees and more than 1,800 affiliated physicians and providers in its statewide network. QHS consists of The Queen’s Medical Center (Hawaii’s oldest hospital founded in 1859), The Queen’s Medical Center – West O‘ahu, The Queen’s Medical Center – Wahiawā, The Queen’s Medical Center – Kahi Mohala, Molokai General Hospital, Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital, The Queen’s Health Care Centers, Queen’s Island Urgent Care, Queen Emma Land Company, Queen’s Development Corporation, Queen’s Insurance Exchange, Queen’s Clinically Integrated Physician Network, and Queen’s ‘Akoakoa, and has ownership interests in CareResource Hawaii, Hamamatsu/Queen’s PET Imaging Center, Diagnostic Laboratory Services, and EmPower Health.

 

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based initiatives. Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $4.5 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $750 million to organizations and initiatives in the states of Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and two U.S. Pacific territories, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.

Media contacts:

Dirk Lammers
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
605-254-3472
dirk@ceteraservices.com

Michelle Tsai
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
347-978-3583
mtsai@helmsleytrust.org

Ross Shimabuku
The Queen’s Health Systems
808-691-2684
rshimabuku@queens.org