Utah family donates $15M to Primary Children’s in memory of infant son

SALT LAKE CITY — A $15 million endowment gift from a Utah family has helped Intermountain Healthcare establish the first highly specialized fetal care center in Utah and the Intermountain West.

Officials say the donation will allow Intermountain and Primary Children’s Hospital, with partners from University of Utah Health, to become a national leader in comprehensive fetal care, including complex fetal surgeries.

With the donation, Primary Children’s has also renamed the Utah Fetal Center to the Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center, in honor of Brad and Megan Bonham’s infant son, who died one day after birth due to complexities that could not be addressed in-utero at that time.

“This gift to the fetal center at Primary Children’s Hospital is very personal to us,” Megan Bonham said. “As challenging as this time was for us, we now feel motivated to help others who have to experience something similar.”

In January 2020, the Bonhams discovered their son, Grant Scott Bonham, would be born with posterior urethral valves — a kidney condition for which, at the time, there was no treatment.

Grant was born the following May and lived for 33 hours before passing away in his mother’s arms.

“What the Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center represents to us is hope – a hope that other families might look forward to a happy, healthy life with their children who are facing challenging medical circumstances,” Brad Bonham said.

“We’ve gone through some really difficult trials in our lives and there was always somebody there with an outstretched hand that has helped lift us up,” he added. “We find it almost incumbent that we provide those same lifting hands when the opportunity arises.”

The center recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of its first fetal surgery with the patient mother and her 11-month-old daughter.

“I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Brad and Megan Bonham for their incredible generosity to help expectant mothers and their unborn babies,” said Dr. Katy Welkie, chief executive officer of Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and vice president of Intermountain Healthcare Children’s Health. “The Bonham family’s leadership and support will rewrite the stories of untold numbers of children in the years to come.”

“Often, the joy a parent feels in pregnancy can turn into despair when they realize their child is affected by congenital anomalies,” said Dr. Stephen Fenton, a pediatric surgeon with University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and director of the center. “We hope the fetal center will become command central for these parents – a place where they can access integrated, high-quality care, innovative therapies and a full team of experts, researchers and fetal surgeons to help expectant mothers with high-risk pregnancies overcome these challenges.”