Emir of Kuwait Gives $3 Million For New Arrhythmia Institute

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center has received $3 million from the emir of Kuwait to establish a cardiac institute focused on patients with irregular heartbeats.

To be announced today, the gift is the first installment of a multimillion-dollar bequest that will fund the Al-Sabah Arrhythmia Institute.

Named for Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the institute will be located at St. Luke's Hospital in Morningside Heights.

The center will focus on conducting arrhythmia research and developing new cardiac treatments.

"This institute will offer people from all over the world the latest and most sophisticated treatment for all types of serious and troublesome heart rhythm disturbances," the hospital's chief of cardiology, Dr. Jonathan Steinberg, the institute's endowed director, said in a statement.

In its mild form, cardiac arrhythmia feels like a fluttering in the chest; severe cases cause some 400,000 deaths each year nationwide.

Hospital officials said the institute is projected to open next fall or by early 2009. The hospital plans to hire a number of clinicians and doctors to staff the center, and it may recruit some from Kuwait.

The connection between St. Luke's-Roosevelt and Kuwait was established decades ago when an attending physician, Dr. Sami Hashim, who is of Lebanese descent, treated several members of Kuwait's delegation to the United Nations.

Since then, he has also treated members of Kuwait's ruling family. "We kept up the relationship," Dr. Hashim said. "I'm their doctor."