Disappointment was all that state Rep. Tom McDonald felt after he took a recent tour of the former Independence Regional Health Center.
Because the former hospital is located in McDonald’s district, he said he took a tour of the facility to familiarize himself with changes that are forthcoming.
“I was really upset because there was so much good equipment available for use,” said McDonald, who described the tour he took alone as “very eerie.” He said most equipment was still turned on with lights flashing. “I couldn’t believe the amount of equipment that was going to go to the wrecking ball.”
Because of an unrelated business connection and through cooperative efforts with the Independence, Blue Springs and Sand Springs, Okla., Rotary clubs, more than 25 volunteers helped load medical equipment out of the former hospital Saturday morning. It was sent on trailers and trucks to the Medical Supplies Network Inc., in Tulsa, Okla., where it will be sent to developing countries for their use.
A Sand Springs, Okla., resident, Howard Pidcock said he and McDonald have known each other as business associates for about 20 years. During a phone conversation about five weeks ago, Pidcock said McDonald mentioned the possible discarding of still usable medical equipment.
“Whoa! That cannot happen. We need that equipment,” Pidcock said he told McDonald.
Sand Springs is located about 10 minutes from Tulsa, where Pidcock knew of the Medical Supplies Network Inc. The former Independence Regional Health Center, which closed in spring 2007, will soon be redeveloped as the Independence Regional Ennovation Center. Coincidentally, Pidcock’s wife, Paula Singleton-Pidcock, worked as a registered nurse at IRHC from 1982-1988 and from 1990-1992.
“I absolutely feel better,” McDonald said Saturday. “It’s a pure coincidence, believe me, that Howard had access to this organization.”
The mission of Rotary District 6110, which includes the 15-year-old Medical Supplies Network Inc., is to supply medical equipment to developing countries free of charge, said Larry Biron, director of operations.
Each month, out of Tulsa, Okla., where the network is based, the equipment is shipped out based on requests from developing countries, such as The Philippines, Belize and South Africa. Each Saturday, Rotarians inventory the medical supplies.
“Any place there’s a need, we ship this stuff,” Biron said. “It doesn’t make too much of a difference of what we have because what we have will be ordered and distributed to a hospital.”
Mostly patient room supplies were loaded onto several large trailers Saturday morning, including over-the-bed hospital tables that most Americans take for granted in their hospital experiences, Biron said. While once visiting a maternity ward in The Philippines, he said that three women were lying sideways in one bed, waiting to give birth.
