A Heartfelt Gift

Breaux Fund Will Support Cardiothoracic Surgery

Charles Breaux and James Kirklin

The Dr. Charles W. Breaux Sr. and Ann K. Breaux Endowed upport Fund in Cardiothoracic Surgery is being established with a generous commitment from Charles W. Breaux Sr., M.D., a retired Birmingham surgeon. The fund will support the UAB Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and recruit visiting scholars who will present academic and/or scientific theories related to cardiothoracic surgery and/or surgery for indigent- care patients.

Breaux was a founding surgeon at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital and spent his career of more than 30 years treating indigent-care patients. His son, Charles Breaux Jr., trained at UAB and is now a pediatric surgeon in Colorado. “Out of deep and abiding respect for Dr. John W. Kirklin, my wife and I, with urging from our daughter, Ann-Marie, set up the endowed support fund,” Breaux says. “Dr. Kirklin pioneered the development of safe, reliable open-heart surgery that has benefited people all over the world. My life was saved by a coronary artery bypass at UAB in 1986 that has held up without revision to this day.”

“This fund will not only be a lasting tribute to Dr. and Mrs. Breaux and their shared commitment to the advancement of the field of cardiothoracic surgery, but it also will provide valuable support to UAB’s Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and its ongoing clinical, research, and teaching initiatives,” says Carol Garrison, president of UAB. “We are grateful for their generosity, and we are truly fortunate to have such wholehearted support from our valued donors.”

Maintaining the Momentum / Summer 2011