Caroline Amplatz, an attorney from Golden Valley, has pledged $50 million to name University of Minnesota's new children's hospital in honor of her father.

The hospital, set to open in 2011, will be named the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital.

After hearing that the University was having trouble raising $100 million of the $275 million needed to complete the project and learning that university officials were offering naming rights if the right donor came along, Ms. Amplatz, also a member of the University Pediatrics Foundation board, spent little time in deciding to make the donation in her father's, Dr. Kurt Amplatz's, name. Dr. Amplatz is a retired professor and a pioneer in Minnesota's medical device community. The gift, is the second largest in the university's history.
Dr. Amplatz taught radiology at the university from 1957 until he retired in 1999 and holds more than 30 patents and is best known for inventing a tiny device to repair congenital heart defects in children and adults. In 1995, he also founded a medical device company, AGA Medical in Plymouth.

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