Norfolk Southern has gifted $455,000 to Children’s of Alabama to go toward expanding its pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and simulation training manikins.

The donation was announced Friday, Nov. 14, at a press conference at the hospital.

Bolstering Birmingham’s PICU

Despite Children’s being “one of the best kept secrets in the country of pediatric care,” Dr. Nancy Tofil from the pediatric program said, the hospital currently has one of the fewest bed-to-population ratios for PICUs in the entire country.

“By going from 24 up to 50 (beds) — and thank God, we don’t think we’ll need 50 usually — we hopefully will never have to turn that child away again.”

When hospitals’ ICUs are full, they go “on diversion,” meaning they are unable to accept new patients from ambulances due to a lac

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