To help care for patients suffering from COVID-19 and fight the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, the family of the world renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has donated his ventilator to a National Health Service (NHS) hospital that had treated him in Cambridge, the English university city where he lived and worked.
The medical equipment, which Hawking bought himself, was donated to the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. The brilliant physicist, who was suffering from a rare early onset form of motor neurone disease, passed away at the age of 76 in March 2018.
The hospital has doubled the capacity of its critical care center to care for the increasing number of patients suffering from COVID-19.
“Professor Stephen Hawking’s family has donated his ventilator to Royal Papworth Hospital as we care for increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients,” the hospital said on 22nd April 2020.
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to the Hawking family for supporting us at this challenging time,” said the hospital, which is a world-leading centre for heart and lung transplants.
Professor Hawking’s daughter, Lucy said,”After our father passed away, we returned all the medical equipment he used that belonged to the NHS but there were some items which he bought for himself.”
“We are now passing them to the NHS in the hope they will help in the fight against COVID-19,” she said.
Professor Hawking spent his entire life probing the origins of the universe and was also the author of the international bestseller, A Brief History of Time. Widely considered a brilliant researcher and one of the most accomplished theoretical physicists ever, Professor Hawking held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663.
We salute this amazing gesture by the family of Professor Hawking!
1
