Henry Ford Macomb Receives $4 Million Gift for Surgical Expansion

CLINTON TOWNSHIP – Henry Ford Macomb Hospital today announced a $4 million donation from Macomb County businessman Wayne Webber and his wife Joan.

The gift will help fund an expansion of the hospital’s surgical services and newly created Wayne and Joan Webber Department of Surgery. A key feature of the expansion is a hybrid operating room for cardiovascular surgery, a first-of-its-kind in Macomb County.

A hybrid cardiovascular surgical suite is equipped with medical imaging devices like CT or MRI scanners, providing surgeons with real-time information that results in more accurate, advanced treatment and safer, shorter procedures. The expansion also includes:

• Increasing the size of current operating rooms from 400 square feet to 650 square feet
• Redesigning surgical patient and visitor rooms

The expansion is essential to meeting the future health care needs of Macomb County residents, says Henry Ford Macomb President and CEO Barbara Rossmann.

“We are grateful to Wayne and Joan Webber for their generous gift and support,” says Rossmann. “Expansion of the operating space and accompanying services is critical for providing the highest possible care to our patients, while ensuring we can continue to recruit, retain and educate top surgeons in our region.

“Just 15 years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine cardiac surgery being performed without actually opening the chest, or a hip being replaced and the patient being sent home the next day. We’ve been fortunate to have nation-leading surgeons who have brought these types of advances here – but many of these new options require more space and technology.”

“My wife and I have been very blessed, and it is an honor to share these blessings with Henry Ford Macomb Hospital,” says Wayne Webber, who resides in Chesterfield Township.

After serving 20 months in the U.S. Army during a peacekeeping mission in Korea, Webber took out a $2,250 loan for a pick-up truck and materials needed to start a new concrete business. He later asked his grade school friend, Earl Champagne, to join him as a partner to form Champagne-Webber, Inc., a small concrete business that eventually grew into a major heavy highway construction company.

The company built highways, bridges, and airport runways in several states. Champagne retired in 1991, and the company’s name was changed to W.W. Webber, Inc. W.W. Webber, Inc. continued to grow to become a successful national highway construction company. W.W. Webber, Inc., along with several affiliate entities, were sold in 2005 and continue to operate today under the name Webber LLC.

The Webber Foundation seeks to provide access to quality healthcare, improve K-12 inner city education, and nourishment, clothing and shelter for the less fortunate.

MEDIA CONTACT:
David Olejarz
David.Olejarz@hfhs.org
(313) 874-4094