On February 10, 2009, Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota announced a gift of $50 million from Caroline Amplatz, J.D., to honor her father, former University professor and medical device pioneer Kurt Amplatz, M.D. In recognition of the gift, the new facility will be named University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital. The hospital, which broke ground last summer, is on schedule to open by mid-2011.

Kurt Amplatz, a professor of radiology for 40 years, joined the University in 1957 and retired in 1999. A pioneer in the use of noninvasive techniques, he holds more than 30 patents. The most famous of his inventions is the Amplatzer® septal occluder, a tiny device used to repair a congenital heart defect in children and adults. It replaced open-heart surgery as the treatment of choice for many thousands of patients.

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