Exceptional Care At Community Hospital Prompts Patient To Give Back

“I believe in community hospitals.”
—Jean Machado

Jean Machado was born and raised in Illinois and started her first career as fifth grade teacher in the far west and northwest suburbs of Chicago. After a few years, she moved to California, met her husband and spent most of the next 50 years managing a physician office and later a law firm.

In 2011, a major medical event brought her to her local community hospital. Jean remembers, “People told me that ‘you have to go to San Francisco or Stanford’ but I saw that my local hospital could provide the same level of care, much closer to me when I wasn’t feeling well, and the people and the care were outstanding. It drove home for me the importance of community hospitals. They care for you as a person because that is the nature of the name itself: community.”

When her husband passed away, she decided to return to Illinois to be near her family who lived in and around Arlington Heights.

“When I moved back and found out that there was a community hospital here, I said that I hope I never need it, but since then I have needed it and the care has been wonderful,” Jean says.

She connected with an attorney, Monica Gurgiolo, after seeing her in a Northwest Community Hospital Foundation newsletter. It had been four years since she updated her estate plans. Jean had moved across country since that time and there are different laws in Illinois, so it was indeed time for an update.

Monica suggested she look at using her IRA for the charitable portion of her estate plans and use other assets for her beneficiaries so that they wouldn’t get hit with additional taxes.

Jean, already an annual donor and member of the President’s Circle, notified NCH Foundation that she was including the hospital in her estate plans and wanted to designate her gift to the planned Cancer Center. Using Monica’s advice, her gift will be through her IRA.

As a new NCH Living Legacy member she feels it is important to let both family and charities know what you’ve planned.

“I like being in charge,” says Jean with a smile. “By doing my estate plan, I am in charge even after I’m gone.”

Discover how you can use your estate plan to leave a legacy and help the people Northwest Community Healthcare’s experts care for now and in the future. Contact Gret Luhrs at 847-618-4271 and gluhrs@nch.org to learn more.