Stephen Hawking's Family Donates His Ventilator to UK Hospital

The U.K. faces a potential shortage of ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients as more than 133,000 cases have been reported as of Wednesday.

The family of world-acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking donated Wednesday his ventilator to help care for COVID-19 patients to the hospital that had treated him in Cambridge before his death.

“Professor Stephen Hawking’s family has donated his ventilator to Royal Papworth Hospital as we care for increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients,” the hospital said on Wednesday.

“We’d like to say a huge thank you to the Hawking family for supporting us at this challenging time,” the hospital added.

The scientist died in March 2018 at age 76 after a lifetime spent studying and theorizing on the origins of the universe and the laws that govern it. He was diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of motor neuron disease at the age of 21.

After the donation, his daughter Lucy Hawking described the care her father had received at that medical center, which is a world-leading center for heart and lung transplants, as “brilliant, dedicated, and compassionate.”

The U.K. faces a potential shortage of ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients as more than 133,000 cases have been reported as of Wednesday and over 18,000 deaths due to the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson in March called on the country’s industry to help produce thousands of the devices to tackle a rise in cases.