Nurses Donate Lottery Win to Deserving Causes

Nurses Donate Lottery Win to Deserving Causes

A syndicate of over a hundred nurses from the St Louis Mercy Children’s Hospital in Missouri, USA, won $10,000 in the October 23, Mega Millions draw. The charitable syndicate have decided to donate their winnings to two well-deserving recipients.The 126 nurses all work in the neonatal intensive care of the hospital. If they’d shared the Mega Millions win, they’d have only received $56 each, as after taxes their win was $7,320. Rather than do that, they made the decision to donate their windfall to a nurse whose son recently committed suicide and neonatologist Dr Casey Orellana whose husband is fighting cancer.

Two worthy causes

Their win came in the Mega Millions draw that saw one ticket eligible for the $1.6bn Mega Millions jackpot. When presenting the two cheques, syndicate leader Nurse Stephanie Brinkman said, “I know it's not the $1.6 billion dollars but here is what we have to offer you, hopefully it'll help.”“When I got that phone call, it was a day I was wondering how we were going to pay for certain medications and it just touches your heart," said the hugely grateful Dr Orellana. Her husband was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer earlier this year. She had to cut her working hours to care for her family.

Syndicate joy turned to sadness

The Mega Millions syndicate is organized by Nurse Stephanie Brinkman. The lucky winner thought she was seeing things when colleagues told her of their big win. Their joy was short-lived though when the news came through that on the night of the Mega Millions draw, nurse Gretchen Post’s 17-year-old son died by suicide.Members of the syndicate discussed the tragic event and decided to donate half their win to the Post family. The money they have decided to donate will help pay for the teenager’s funeral. "I was very grateful for the thoughtfulness and the generosity,” said the emotional mother.