Compassionate Care Compels Planned Gift

A long-time salesman, Richard Warwick is skilled at listening to his clients so he can meet their specific needs. It was that innate ability that led Richard to invent the Adjust-A-Lift® Heel Lift more than 40 years ago.

“I called on a doctor one day that didn’t like anything I had,” Richard remembers of the meeting that changed the course of his career. “But he said, ‘If you’d get me a good heel lift, I’d be interested.’”

Richard went to work immediately and invented the device that continues to sell more than 40,000 units a month four decades after its introduction. Sold primarily online and by direct mail today, the orthopedic insert addresses a range of conditions that result from one leg being shorter than the other. Today the company offers a variety of products to orthopedics providers, chiropractors, a variety of other healthcare providers, and direct to consumers.

More than just the inventor, Richard is also a customer. He’s made use of his products over the years, and they were instrumental in helping him remain comfortable after knee replacement surgeries in 2019 and 2020. While his lifts helped keep him comfortable during his recovery, he gives all credit for his relief to his surgeon – David Sneller, MD, of McFarland Clinic Orthopedics – and the team that cared for him at Mary Greeley Medical Center.

“I have nothing but good things to say about Dr. Sneller,” Richard says. “I was also very, very impressed with the quality of care here at Mary Greeley Medical Center.”

Richard was so grateful for his care that he contacted the Mary Greeley Foundation, then met with his attorney to create a planned gift through his will.

“It was time to re-evaluate my will and what was going where,” Richard says. “I was so appreciative of my care at Mary Greeley that I decided to designate a gift to the Foundation. It feels great to know that I have done some good in my life for people with the heel lift and that I will do some good after I’m gone by making a gift to a great place like Mary Greeley.”

The gift will go to the area of greatest need, which Richard specified in his will.

“I hope to live a lot longer, and if I do, chances are that there are going to be huge changes in healthcare,” says Richard, who is 74. “There are procedures and treatments that are going to be done that aren’t even available now. With that in mind, I'd like the hospital to decide on how best to use the gift when the time comes.”

To learn more about making a planned gift to the Mary Greeley Foundation, please contact Sarah Heineman at 515-239-2421 or heineman@mgmc.com.