HR0004 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0004 LRB094 04704 HSS 35317 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers will celebrate its 75th anniversary on January 19, 2005; and

WHEREAS, Three Sisters of the Little Company of Mary came to the United States in 1893 at the request of a Chicago civic leader whose wife had been cared for by the Sisters in Rome; the Sisters continued caring for the sick and dying in the Chicagoland area for 37 years before building the original Little Company of Mary Hospital in 1930; in 1950, Little Company had the distinction of creating worldwide medical history, when three of its physicians performed the very first kidney transplant; and

WHEREAS, The hospital's compassion for the sick is deep-rooted; Little Company's Foundress, Venerable Mary Potter, fought a personal battle with cancer; Little Company was one of the first hospitals to offer hospice care to the metropolitan Chicago community in the 1970s; in 2004, Little Company reached the milestone birth of its 200,000th baby alumni - more than any other hospital in the Southwest Suburbs - to continue its heritage as "The Baby Hospital"; today the commitment of the hospital and health care centers to caring for the sick is as strong as ever, especially with its new Cancer Center affiliated with the University of Chicago Hospitals; and

WHEREAS, Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers offer a heritage of faith-based care that focuses as much on technology as the spiritual connection of prayer; the organization looks toward a future that draws on the experience and spiritual strength of the past, combined with the knowledge and scientific advances that will aid in its continuing mission of providing compassionate care; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers on the occasion of the organization's 75th anniversary on January 19, 2005, and we thank the organization for the tireless devotion to the needs of the sick in the Chicagoland area exhibited throughout the past 75 years; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers as an expression of our esteem.