News Release

BAXTER DONATES $2 MILLION TO ADDRESS THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH-CARE NEEDS OF THOSE AFFECTED BY THE TRAGEDIES OF SEPTEMBER 11

Company Seeks Out Organizations in Need of Financial Support to Continue Providing Vital Services to the Victims, Families and Affected Communities

DEERFIELD, Ill., December 17, 2001 -- Baxter Healthcare Corporation, its team members and The Baxter International Foundation announced today that they will provide nearly $2 million to organizations in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania that are addressing the mental and physical health-care needs of people affected by the tragedies of September 11. Baxter specifically sought out organizations that are providing vital services, but are not necessarily receiving large grants from other individuals and organizations funding relief efforts.

Soon following the events of September 11, Baxter established a relief fund that matched donations by its team members. The fund was started with a $500,000 donation from the company and another $500,000 donation from The Baxter International Foundation, the company's philanthropic arm. The company and the foundation each matched team members' contributions dollar-for-dollar. Donations from Baxter team members combined with the company and foundation match and initial contribution brought the fund to $1.993 million.

"The United States is still healing from the events of September 11 and we want to do all we can to help," said Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr., Baxter's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our contributions deliberately targeted organizations providing vital services that needed our financial support."

The funding criteria, which was developed with input from Baxter team members, required that the funds be dispersed to all three geographic areas impacted; targeted organizations providing aid for the mental and physical health-care needs of the victims, family members and surrounding communities; and required that the recipient organizations preferably be ones that were not already receiving large grants from other funding sources. After extensive research and careful consideration, the following five organizations were chosen:

New York
·

• Nearly $800,000 will go to the United Neighborhood House, which is the umbrella organization for 37 settlement houses throughout New York City, serving more than one-half million people. The funds will be used to support mental health services for six settlement houses in lower Manhattan, as well as three other settlement houses serving communities with large numbers of individuals directly affected by the attack on the World Trade Center. Many of the members and staff for these settlement houses witnessed first-hand the attacks on the World Trade Center.
• The Association to Benefit Children is providing mental health services for the children and families of the missing and dead at Pier 94. As the necessity for crisis health and mental health services for New York's children passes from emergency relief to the need for long-term services, the organization has responded by establishing a Children's Disaster Relief Center in East Harlem. Baxter will contribute $205,000 for counseling services provided by the Children's Disaster Relief Center.
• New York Community Trust will receive $500,000 to support the long-term mental and physical health-care needs of the victims and families.

"In the aftermath of the attacks, people are still coping with traumatic life events, including the loss of a loved one, the loss of their home or their job as a result of the attacks, further increasing the need and demand for our services," said Gretchen Buchenholz, executive director of the Association to Benefit Children. "We are grateful to receive funding from Baxter that will help us to respond to the long-term therapy needs for the children and families affected and provide them with the care and support they so desperately need at this very difficult point in their life."

Washington D.C

• Bachus, Ketchum and Leckie Schools in the District of Columbia each lost teachers and students in the attack on the Pentagon. The students and teachers were on the hijacked plane, on their way to a National Geographic Society expedition in the Channel Islands. They were specially selected for the expedition in recognition for their outstanding efforts in the field of science. The schools will receive a total of $420,000 to hire a full-time nurse that will enable them to develop a community wellness program, which will be a memorial to the students and teachers that so tragically lost their lives.

Somerset, Pennsylvania

• The Salvation Army has been providing food, spiritual and emotional support for families of the victims, as well as relief workers. Baxter's donation of $75,000 will help them to replenish depleted resources.

"The outpouring of support from Baxter team members around the world was amazing," said Kraemer. "We realize our efforts can not begin to replace the loss so many have suffered, but we hope it will help to ensure the continued work of organizations providing direct and ongoing support to those in need."
The Baxter Relief Fund supplements efforts by Baxter team members who have been providing support at a professional and personal level to the victims and affected communities. Immediately following the attacks, Baxter team members staffed 24-hour customer service lines, contacted individual health-care providers and their patients to ensure that they had adequate supplies of vital renal and hemophilia therapies, and worked extra shifts to handle emergency shipments of Baxter's critical care products. Additionally, many employees joined forces with the customers they serve on a daily basis to help in their blood collection efforts.

As the philanthropic arm of Baxter International Inc., The Baxter International Foundation helps to increase access to health care around the world. In 2000, foundation grants totaling $4.7 million improved access to care for children, the uninsured and the elderly, helped prevent child abuse and neglect, promoted health education, expanded education opportunities for health-care providers, and helped victims of global disasters.

Baxter Healthcare Corporation is the principal domestic operating subsidiary of Baxter International Inc., a global medical products and services company that, through its subsidiaries, provides critical therapies for people with life-threatening conditions. Baxter's products and services in bioscience (biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, biosurgery products and transfusion therapies), medication delivery and renal therapy are used by health-care providers and their patients in more than 100 countries.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

	Media Contact: Tanya Tyska, (847) 948-3256