Children's Medical Center Dallas has announced a $5 million gift from the Harold Simmons Foundation in Dallas to help establish the Annette Simmons Heart Hospital.

Last year, Children's Medical performed more than seven hundred cardiac surgeries, four hundred open heart surgeries, and six hundred heart catheterization procedures. The new heart hospital, which will be part of the new multi-disciplinary Comprehensive Center for Heart Care at Children's, will benefit more than six thousand children each year.

"When we learned of the tremendous need for pediatric cardiac care, we wanted to help make the heart hospital a reality," said Annette Simmons. "Our grandchildren have been patients at Children's, so we understand and appreciate what a valuable resource Children's is to the pediatric population of north Texas."

A native Texan, Harold Simmons built a statewide drugstore chain worth more than $50 million. He now controls five corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange and serves as chairman of his Dallas-based foundation, which, in addition to supporting the Dallas medical community, funds cultural, educational, and civic improvement programs in the region, as well as medical research and the study of health and human services.