Patient buys hundreds of TVs for hospital

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BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A Buffalo, N.Y., restaurateur said he donated almost $200,000 to the Erie County Medical Center so patients won't have to pay to watch TV while hospitalized.

Russell Salvatore had spent decades running one of Buffalo's signature restaurants -- Salvatore's Italian Gardens restaurant and Garden Place Hotel -- but after he retired he didn't have enough to do so he opened a new restaurant, Russell's Steaks, Chops & More.

Recently, he was treated at the Erie County Medical Center for a broken ankle and he said he made the gift in appreciation of the care he received.

"This is the season of giving," Salvatore told the Buffalo News. "When you are recuperating in a hospital bed, television becomes very important. I want to make sure all of ECMC's patients have the same excellent experience that I did."

The teaching hospital still uses old-style tube TVs, and earlier in the year the hospital's patient experience committee reported the top improvement patients had requested was new televisions.

The old televisions have already begun to be replaced, and soon hundreds of the patient rooms will have 26-inch LG flat-screen TVs, provided at no cost to the patient, hospital officials said.