Endowment Supports Families in Need

The Gelats family understands the difficult road and many challenges patients and families face when battling cancer. Son and brother, Juan Gelats, passed away in May of 2008 after a yearlong battle with squamous cell carcinoma. He initially was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1993 and received a bone marrow transplant at The Nebraska Medical Center in 1994. He remained cancer-free of lymphoma until his death.

Before his death, Juan and his family established an endowed fund for The Nebraska Medical Center’s Patient Assistance Fund.

"Juan was always grateful to The Nebraska Medical Center for giving him another chance at living, working and doing the things he loved to do," says brother Jose Gelats. "He always spoke very highly of the staff and the care he received there. They have always held a special place in his heart."

A resident of Baton Raton, Fla., at the time of his diagnosis, Juan came to The Nebraska Medical Center upon the advice of his physician in West Palm Beach, Fla. Juan’s mother, Margarita Gelats, was able to stay with him throughout his transplant and recovery at The Nebraska Medical Center’s cooperative care facility located next to the hospital. This unique care arrangement allows patients and their family to stay together in a home-like environment to recover and assist in the care process.

"Throughout his entire treatment and recovery our mother was able to stay with Juan and provide support and he was really grateful for this," adds Jose. "Juan realized how essential this was to proper healing and wanted to make sure others would have this same opportunity as he did by setting up this fund.

"It means a lot to our family that he felt so strongly about establishing a fund to help others in perpetuity of him."

Juan, a certified public accountant in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., died at the age of 48, shortly after completing treatment at the University of Chicago Medical Center for head and neck cancer.