FARGO – Medical equipment no longer needed by the Family Healthcare Center will be shipped to a hospital in Haiti.
The equipment, enough for three examination rooms, will be part of a shipment of used medical supplies scheduled to leave late this year.
The “third-hand” equipment – donated earlier to the center by medical providers – will no longer be needed once the Family Healthcare Center has a new home next fall. The center is moving from its downtown location to a spot in south Fargo.
“Some of that equipment was donated to us years ago,” said Patricia Patron, executive director of Family Healthcare Center. “They’ve been put to really good use for 10 years in our facility.”
The donated equipment will be shipped by HERO of Fargo – Healthcare Equipment Recycling Organization – for delivery in January.
The items consist of lights, medical exam tables, drawers and shelves removed from the downtown center in preparation for moving into the new location. Hannaher’s Inc. helped by moving the donated equipment to HERO’s location in south Fargo.
The donations allow the medical equipment to be recycled instead of being disposed of, which also helps the environment, Patron said.
“For us, it was more about doing a good deed,” she said.
The equipment is bound for Pignon, a town of about 30,000 people 80 miles from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, near the epicenter of the devastating 2010 earthquake that crippled the island nation. Each January, a medical mission team from Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead travels to Pignon. The equipment will arrive in time for the medical mission team to distribute it, said Margot Brenna, communications director of HERO.
The donated equipment from Family Healthcare Center will join other supplies and equipment. The shipment, when fully compiled, will fill a semitrailer and weigh approximately 19,000 pounds, she said.
HERO, established in 1996 by several nurses in Fargo-Moorhead, provides donated medical supplies and equipment to users in need both locally and globally.
The nonprofit organization hopes this year it will be able to open two affiliates or satellites, including a location in Detroit Lakes, Minn., Brenna said. Dakota Medical Foundation recently provided a $2,500 grant to help HERO explore that possibility.
By: Patrick Springer, INFORUM
