UMKC gets $500K gift from late student's family

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The medical school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus has received a $500,000 gift to increase its focus on patient safety.

The school says in a news release that the gift comes from the family of Vijay Babu Rayudu. He was a UMKC medical student who died in July 2007.

His parents, Rao and Subbulaxmi Rayudu, are both physicians in the Memphis, Tenn., area. The couple has another son who is a doctor and a daughter who is a student at the UMKC School of Medicine.

The release says the family believes that establishing an Endowed Chair in Patient Safety makes a contribution to medicine that their son will not be able to provide directly.