Primary Children’s Hospital raised over $642 million, breaking its original goal of $500 million.
Announced in January 2020, the Primary Promise campaign’s goal was to build the “nation’s model health system for children” with the philosophy of “The Child First and Always.”
The money raised helps children like Abigail Rose, the first child in Utah to receive in utero fetal surgery.
In 2021, Alisha Rose discovered her unborn child had spina bifida. The condition occurs when the fetus’ spine and spinal cord do not close properly during early pregnancy. This can cause a number of conditions for the child, including mobility challenges, bowel and bladder problems, learning and cognitive issues and orthopedic issues.
Doctors performed surgery on the fetus while Rose was around 25 weeks’ gestation. One month later, Abigail was born.
“You go into life with pregnancy ... with the expectations of rainbows and butterflies. I’m gonna tell you right now, we did not get rainbows and butterflies at the very beginning. We got tears and a lot of unknowns,” Rose said. “We are so thankful for everybody who came together, the doctors, the nurses, everybody behind the scenes to help give Abigail the life that she has. There are really no words.”
Today the 4-year-old is healthy, mobile, and with the help of physical and occupational therapy, she is able to walk with a walker.
“We encourage her to be independent. We encourage her to go after what she wants. We are not going to tell her who she can be, what she can be, or what she can do. We’re going to encourage her every step of the way, and with Primary Children’s walking that journey with us, I know that we’re going to continue seeing progress with her,” Alisha Rose said.
The campaign highlighted the Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi as one of its accomplishments. The campus opened its doors in February 2024.
“Being a second campus of our Salt Lake Primary Children’s Hospital, we work very closely together. In fact, we have the same providers and caregivers that go between our campuses, and that was how we had planned to be able to bring world-class care that has been delivered for many years at our Salt Lake campus here locally,” said Lisa Paletta, president of the children’s hospital at the Miller Family Campus.
The campaign originally had a goal of $500 million, but that was raised to $600 million.
According to Paletta, this was due to the realization that the second campus wasn’t comprehensive, and there were other aspects of children’s health that needed to be addressed, such as behavioral health and autism services.
The campus is adding additional capacity to the facility as part of a five-year plan. The campus plans to continue advancing to keep up with the population growth demand in Utah County.
Other accomplishments of the plan include the new behavioral health center that opened in Taylorsville, distribution of safety devices and the “Angel Eyes” virtual program connecting families remotely to their children in the neonatal intensive care unit, connecting families in remote areas with top-tier pediatric specialists, and saving over 15,000 days of school for children who could otherwise have needed to leave class.
Moving forward, the next five years look promising for Primary Children’s Hospital; the hospital plans on opening the first-ever stand-alone children’s hospital in Nevada and plans on “expanding world-class services for children” in Montana.
“Five years of this campaign ... you blink, and here we are, five years later. But it’s amazing to look at all we’ve accomplished on all of our campuses,” Paletta concluded. “It’s absolutely aspirational, and it’s taken so many people to make it happen ... and I am so proud to represent it.”
