DeWall trust paves the way toward future

Gibson Area Hospital opened its new obstetrics unit, courtesy of an endowment from a trust set up by the late Earl and Laura DeWall of Gibson City.

The DeWall Maternity Unit was built in a 13,000-square-foot area on the hospital's second floor. The area includes 10,000 square feet of space above the emergency department that had gone unused for the past seven years, plus a recently built 3,000-square-foot second-floor addition.

The new OB unit features five private LDRP rooms (for labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum).
Hospital CEO Rob Schmitt says the hospital's OB facilities are on par with new maternity units at other hospitals in East Central Illinois. And the new facility has already served more than a handful of new moms.

The old OB unit had been the only remaining inpatient care unit in the original 1952 hospital building.
Also opening in the past week was a new surgery inpatient unit.

Both new units were part of a 16,000-square-foot renovation that began in 2012 under the appropriately named "Project 2012." The $5 million project was paid for, in part, by a multi-million-dollar endowment from a trust set up by the late Earl and Laura DeWall of Gibson City.

The name of the new OB unit — the DeWall Maternity Unit — and the photo of the DeWalls is prominently displayed in its lobby.

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