Added convenience for patients and staff at Windsor Regional Hospital, thanks to a recent donation.
Windsor Regional Hospital Foundation Board Member, Vinoo Dayal, held a Valentine's Day Garba event to raise funds for a Transport Ventilator for the emergency department back in February.
The event managed to raise $16,400.
Dr. Tony Pattinson, a local Obstetrician at the Met Campus, along with his wife, Mary, who is a nurse, heard about the initiative and generously donated the remaining $53,600 balance to allow the hospital to purchase the equipment.
Pattinson says he's been a practicing OB in the city for almost 30 years, and in the process of retiring he and his wife wanted to do something to thank the community.
"Mary and I have worked together throughout our practise here, we adopted our daughter Lily and she's following in the family footsteps in healthcare as a paramedic. When we heard that this was a needed piece of equipment that the hospital didn't have, it just seemed like a really good fit for our family to support," he said.
Lisa Gawdunyk, Manager for the Met Campus Emergency Department, says a Transport Ventilator allows them to transport patients safely to and from departments.
"Currently right now we use our BVM, or bag-valve-mask ventilation, and we manually provide air breaths to our patients. Now with this ventilator, it'll be a portable ventilator, that will work to provide breathing support to our patients during transport."
Gawdunyk says it will provide added convenience for patients, but the improved safety aspect is most important.
She says it will provides constant breathing measures for their patients rather than mechanically doing it on their own.
"These patients are transferred to cat scan, were transferred to ICU, even transferred between the Met and Ouellette sites on ventilators. We are currently doing this mechanically so having a machine that actually does this is a much better standard of safety protocols," she added.
Dr. Ayodeji Akinlaja, Medical Director for the Met Campus Emergency Department, says it's not something they were actively asking for, but now that they're going to have it, it will save a lot of lives.
He says added there's added convenience for the department as well, because it frees up an extra hand.
"You transport from patients from the ER to the CT scan all the time. Transport patients from Met campus to Ouellette campus or stuff like that, all you need to do is just connect the machine and it does the job. That means you don't have to use your hands, you just have to keep on with the monitor making sure things are properly done. It's going to make a lot of difference," he stated.
Gawdunyk says they're currently in the process of purchasing the machine, and they're hoping to get it up and running as soon as possible.