‘Legacy of Life’ Award Ceremony Honoring James LeVoy Sorenson

SALT LAKE CITY - The Sorenson Legacy Foundation, a charitable organization established by the James LeVoy Sorenson family to promote altruistic and philanthropic endeavors, has given $6 million to the Deseret Foundation, the fundraising organization for non-profit Intermountain Healthcare’s Urban Central Region, for its Intermountain Medical Center Patient Tower in Murray. This latest gift brings to $22 million the total amount given by the foundation to Intermountain Healthcare hospitals since 2003.

In February 2003, the foundation gave $14 million to help the Intermountain Medical Center build one of the world’s most advanced heart and lung treatment centers. In February 2006, the foundation donated $2 million to non-profit Intermountain Healthcare’s Dixie Regional Medical Center, one of the two largest donations the southern Utah hospital has ever received.

At an award banquet honoring James LeVoy Sorenson with the Deseret Foundation Heart and Lung Research Foundation’s 2007 Legacy of Life Award, H. Gary Pehrson, chief executive officer of Intermountain Healthcare’s Urban Central Region, made the announcement of the foundation’s latest gift. “We are very grateful for the Sorenson family’s generosity in helping us fulfill the great potential and hope that Intermountain Medical Center will provide to people throughout the Intermountain West,” said Pehrson.

“As one of the most advanced medical campuses in the country, Intermountain Medical Center will provide the community with the best healthcare modern medicine can offer. This project has been made possible thanks to generous gifts from wonderful visionaries like Mr. Sorenson and his family. This gift goes a long way in helping us accomplish our objective of providing the very best care to patients we serve.”

Sorenson is a renowned biotechnology inventor who created dozens of medical products now considered standard equipment in healthcare, such as the first disposable paper surgical mask, the first plastic venous catheter, the first blood-recycling system and the first computerized heart monitoring system.

“We are very happy to be able support the efforts of Intermountain Healthcare in building this marvelous medical complex,” said Sorenson. “There are few organizations like Intermountain Healthcare in the world, and its new flagship Intermountain Medical Center is a world-class facility for all those in need of care.”

At the Deseret Foundation Heart and Lung Foundation’s banquet, Pehrson announced the Intermountain Medical Center’s tallest building on the campus will be named the J.L. Sorenson Patient Tower. The mission of the Heart and Lung Research Foundation is to save lives by providing seed money for important clinical research projects.