Women's charitable group funds life-saving technology at St. Joseph's Hospital

TAMPA, Fla. - March is Women's History Month and FOX 13 is are highlighting a group of women who are making a difference at a Bay Area hospital.

The women are part of the group St. Joseph's Hospital Philanthropic Women. They raise funds for medical equipment and projects for the hospital.

"We all love St. Joe's. Most of us have some sort of personal connection to St. Joe's, and we want to make sure that we support it in the best way that we can and make sure that it stays the feel of a neighborhood hospital, but with the state-of-the-art technology that we all want," said Monica Angel, member of St. Joseph's Hospital Philanthropic Women group. 

General and thoracic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Waxman showed us one of those pieces of equipment, a robotic bronchoscope. A robotic arm controls a camera that allows a doctor to see inside a patient's lungs.

"[It] allows us to find really small lung nodules and do a biopsy, take a sample and find out if they're cancer or not," Waxman explained.

The group was started 14 years ago by two women who brought together a group of others to support the hospital.

"We come together and through our membership dues, we fund innovative projects throughout the hospital. To date, we have funded 146 different projects totaling over $2 million," Angel added said. "Bringing the Monarch robot, being the first hospital in Tampa Bay to have it available to the patients here, it was really exciting. Oftentimes, we find different projects that help women in particular or children in particular. This helps the entirety of the Tampa Bay community, and we're so excited to do it." 

Doctors at the hospital are very thankful for all the equipment that the women have bought. 

"It would be very difficult to acquire this technology but thanks to their help, now we can offer state-of-the-art technology in our hospital. That's the goal. The goal is to be able to identify those patients that may have very early stage lung cancers and being able to cure them," Dr. Waxman said. 

Angel says it is important for women to work together to help the community. 

"There's no shortage of good causes, but when you get a lot of strong women together, we can do pretty much anything."