Perelman Pledges $50 Million to NYU Langone Hospital

When Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire financier, visited his father-in-law at the emergency room of the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy last year, he was horrified by what he saw.

“It was just like a scene from Vietnam,” Mr. Perelman said, describing a facility overflowing with patients. “It was disgraceful.”

The hospital was swamped with patients, he said, after the closing of the NYU Langone Medical Center’s emergency department further downtown, where the storm had caused dangerous chemical and bacteria leaks.

On Thursday, Mr. Perelman, who is recovering at home from back surgery, announced a $50 million, 10-year gift for the construction of an expanded NYU Langone emergency department. The 22,000-square-foot facility, at 570 First Avenue and 33rd Street, will triple the size of old unit and will include a separate area for children’s emergency services.

The new department will also include more than a dozen new treatment rooms, expanded designated X-ray space and larger critical care units. The hospital also plans to hire more staff members, said Dr. Lewis R. Goldfrank, the chairman of NYU Langone’s emergency medicine department.

NYU Langone had long planned to expand its emergency services, spurred by the growing number of patients that have come to rely on the hospital over the years. Dr. Goldfrank estimated that the emergency department treated an average of 7,000 patients a year when he started more than three decades ago.

Before Sandy, he estimated that NYU Langone was treating about 45,000.

“Before the storm came, the emergency department was outdated and we needed a tremendous amount of help, and we needed a vision for a new department,” Dr. Goldfrank said.

Hurricane Sandy fast-tracked that vision, creating an urgent need for money and facilities. Mr. Perelman, who sits on NYU Langone’s board of trustees and has donated to the hospital before, said he was approached by Ken Langone, the board’s chairman, about a donation.

Mr. Perelman, already dismayed by the lack of hospitals in the area after St. Vincent’s Hospital closed in 2010, agreed.

“I just don’t think it’s fair to the people who lived down there to have to go all the way up to New York hospital at 72nd Street to get emergency treatment,” Mr. Perelman said, referring to the cluster of uptown facilities that make up New York Presbyterian, on whose board he also sits.

Over cocktails, Mr. Perelman even asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg what he thought of the idea of donating to the hospital.

“I think it’s fabulous,” Mr. Perelman recalled him saying.

The Perelman name is already familiar throughout NYU Langone’s hallways. Both the hospital’s dermatology department and a fund to support biomolecular medicine at the medical school are named after him. Mr. Perelman has given about $13 million to NYU Langone already, ranking him among the 10 largest donors in terms of lifetime giving, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Mr. Perelman’s $50 million gift caps off a charitable year for the longtime deal maker. A new building at Columbia Business School will bear his name after he pledged $100 million for the construction of new facilities in May. In February, Mr. Perelman gave $25 million to the University of Pennsylvania to build a new political science and economics facility, also to be named after him.

Mr. Perelman has also committed to the Giving Pledge, a promise by some of the world’s wealthiest individuals, including Warren Buffett and the hedge fund mogul William Ackman and his wife, to donate most of their wealth to philanthropy.

Mr. Perelman donated $49 million to philanthropic causes in 2012, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, ranking him No. 27 on a list of top donors the organization listed earlier this year.

New Yorkers marked the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy in October, a year in which the city has struggled to heal from the tableau of devastation the storm left behind. The storm destroyed homes and businesses throughout the five bureaus, and accidents claimed more than 100 lives, including many elderly residents in Staten Island and Queens.

With the announcement of his gift to NYU Langone, Mr. Perelman will now have to focus on finding his next philanthropic project.

“I’m working on it,” Mr. Perelman said. “If you come up with any good ideas, let me know.”