The LSU Health Shreveport Foundation returned with its annual fundraising event, An Evening for Healers, on Thursday, August 31. For 12 years, the event has served as a platform to honor and celebrate the Shreveport-Bossier community’s first responders, physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and other healthcare providers who each played a vital role in saving the lives of patients at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport (OLHS), North Louisiana’s only Level 1 Trauma Center while raising mission-critical funding for LSU Health Shreveport.
Since the event’s inception, 26 moving patient stories have been shared, more than 850 dedicated first responders and healthcare heroes have been honored, and more than $4 million has been raised for LSU Health Shreveport. This year, the LSUHS Foundation celebrated record-breaking fundraising, with more than $550,000 raised in a single year from more than 100 sponsors. Funds raised through An Evening for Healers help LSU Health Shreveport recruit and retain top faculty, acquire cutting-edge technology and equipment, and support programs for students at all three LSUHS schools – the School of Medicine, School of Allied Health Professions, and the School of Graduate Studies.
More than 900 guests attended the event and were the first to see the CRM Studios produced documentaries retelling the inspiring stories of patients whose lives were saved thanks to their team of healers. This year’s featured patients were Lynette Moye, a Longview, Texas resident who experienced complete hearing loss after a case of meningitis and sought highly specialized care at OLHS; and Evie Hilburn, a West Monroe teenager who suffered a spinal cord injury after an ATV accident. Both patients have experienced positive outcomes thanks to the care they received and were given the opportunity to thank their team of healers for saving their lives for the first time collectively.
While the event historically focuses on patients who were given a second chance at life, this year, the event also honored healthcare professionals who experienced losing a patient and shared a story on addressing the mental health crisis facing teenagers.
LSU Health Shreveport’s new Chancellor, David S. Guzick, MD, PhD, was the keynote speaker. Dr. Guzick became Chancellor in January and is a reproductive endocrinologist and academic health center leader. He served seven years as the dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and nine years as the University of Florida’s senior vice president for health affairs and president of UF Health. He is the only active physician in the state of Louisiana who is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Ochsner Health was the presenting sponsor for An Evening for Healers. Ochsner Health and LSU Health Shreveport will celebrate five years of their partnership, Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport, this year. The two entities joined forces in 2018 with a vision to improve the health and well-being of its communities, access to care, quality, and facilities, expand patient-centered technology, grow the medical school, and enhance research in North Louisiana.
“We continue to be amazed at the generosity of this community in supporting An Evening for Healers,” said Kevin Flood, President and CEO of the LSU Health Shreveport Foundation. “We are deeply grateful for Ochsner Health’s continued philanthropic support, as well as every sponsor who ensures LSU Health Shreveport remains a pillar of this community for years to come.”
