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Couple's Donation Is Tops For Tampa General Hospital

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

Updated: 05/21/2008 10:14 am

TAMPA - RV kingpin Don Wallace and his wife, Erika, have become Tampa General Hospital's largest benefactors with a recent $2 million donation toward the trauma center in the hospital's new emergency room.

"The emergency room and now the trauma center have been so important to us," said Don Wallace, whose family foundation also donated $1 million to the center in 2004. "So many of our friends' lives have been saved there."

Wallace's 9-year-old son was treated for a broken arm at the hospital, and Wallace said he was there last year after suffering a reaction after a medication switch.

"Whenever something happens, … that's where we end up," Wallace said Tuesday.

The center and emergency room opened in November in the 340,000-square-foot Bayshore Pavilion.

Recently named The Wallace Trauma Center, it features six trauma rooms where doctors care for patients with life-threatening injuries.

Tampa General is the region's only Level One trauma center in West Central Florida. That means the hospital has a designated trauma team that cares for the most severely injured patients in a 23-county area seven days a week, 24 hours a day. In 2007, Tampa General cared for nearly 3,000 trauma patients.

The Wallaces will be honored Thursday during a noon luncheon where about 25 former patients will talk about how they overcame their injuries.

Wallace is president and chief executive officer of Lazy Days RV Center Inc., which has annual sales of more than $800 million at its sprawling 140-acre site off Interstate 4 in Seffner.

"We are extremely pleased that we can recognize the Wallace family in this way," Ron Hytoff, the hospital's president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. "Their extraordinary generosity will benefit not just the physicians and staff at Tampa General, but also the thousands of patients who depend on us in times of medical emergencies."

The Wallaces have donated more than $3.3 million to the hospital.

Researcher Michael Messano contributed to this report. Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at sackerman@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7144.

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