Alla family gives back

Alla family gives back

By Deirdre Cox Baker | Wednesday, November 26, 2008 1:59 PM CST | (

The daunting financial situation facing many Americans these days hasn’t prevented the Alla family from making a $500,000 donation to the Trinity Health Foundation. In fact, it helped prompt the decision.

“It’s important to give, especially when the economy is so bad,” family patriarch Dr. V.R. Alla said. A nephrologist, or kidney specialist, and the founder of the Quad-Cities Kidney Center facilities in the region, he said the gift was actually from the entire family.

The Allas have therefore been selected as the Trinity Health Foundation’s Donor of the Year.

The family is in the habit of gathering each Friday night at the Rock Island home of Dr. V.R. and Nirmala Alla. They were around the dinner table one evening in the spring when the idea of the large contribution came up.

“When the economy is bad, people really need funds like these,” Dr. Alla said.

The gift goes to three areas: Trinity’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences, continuing education for nurses employed at Trinity Medical Center and to help support community services and programs about hypertension and kidney disease.

The Alla family certainly has shown that it values nursing, said Berlinda Tyler-Jamison, the president of the foundation.

“How do you thank someone for such a significant gift?” she said. “After searching for the correct words, I finally thought of my late great-grandmother’s advice and simply said, ‘Thank you.’ ”

Good education for nurses is critical for good outcomes, Dr. Alla said. The dialysis process that goes on in the kidney centers takes three to four hours for each patient, three times a week, and each one tends to develop a family-style relationship with the nurses and other health care providers.

One of the Alla couple’s three sons, Rakesh Alla, is chief operating officer of the centers, which can be found in Moline, Silvis, Geneseo, Aledo and Dixon in Illinois, plus soon in Rock Island, as well as in Davenport and Bettendorf.

Money for scholarships at the Trinity school will ensure that there are open doors and opportunities for students, Rakesh Alla said, noting that it also will help encourage practicing nurses with continuing education possibilities.

The third emphasis, on community education, goes to the need in the Quad-Cities for dialysis services. “If we can put off or delay kidney failure through education, that’s a win for everyone,” he said.

In a way, a final benefit of the donation is to V.R. Alla himself, who was “welcomed with open arms” to the Quad-Cities as a kidney specialist in the 1970s. “It’s a way to give back,” he said.

His three sons include Rakesh, Dr. Rajesh Alla, who is also a nephrologist, and Suresh Alla, who is in a residency program at the University of Colorado near Denver.

Deirdre Cox Baker can be contacted at (563) 383-2492 or dbaker@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/11/26/features/health/doc492daa4e90f98805771351.txt