Haiti Donations Continue

MIAMI — According to the Accredited Medical Equipment
Providers of America, in the weeks since the devastating earthquake
in Haiti, “the situation has unfortunately stabilized. People live
in tent cities, nearly 200,000 people are dead and the road to
recovery is years, if not decades, away. There is still much to do
to help our neighbor nation.”

AMEPA has been collecting equipment in donated warehouse space,
but that space has been rented, so the association is urging
companies who still want to donate to send equipment by the end of
the week. For information on the collection effort, call the AMEPA
office at 305/654-5957 or email [email protected].

Other industry donations to Haitian relief continue as well:

• Working with relief organization Project C.U.R.E, manufacturer
  Bilt-Rite-Mastex, Croydon, Pa., has donated a large quantity of
  medical supplies including occupational back supports, rib belts,
  arm slings, knee braces, lumbar-sacral supports, abdominal binders,
  wrist supports, posture supports, wristlets, ankle supports, hinged
  knee braces, cast boots, cervical foam collars, finger splints and
  latex gloves.

• Members of the North Carolina Association of Medical Equipment
  Services have donated truckloads of hospital beds, walkers and
  other supplies. Griffin Home Health Care, a 27-year-old company
  serving patient in Charlotte and Gastonia, donated 25 hospital
  beds, walkers and commode chairs. AeroFlow Healthcare in western
  North Carolina is donating 5 percent of its gross revenue generated
  by new referrals through March 12 to a relief organization. At the
  state association’s Winter Meeting last month, “our keynote speaker
  challenged each attendee to reach into their pockets and pull out
  money right then and there to give to the American Red Cross for
  Haiti relief,” said Marcia Ladd, NAMES president. Ladd’s company,
  Triangle Aftercare in Durham, sent two cargo vans full of
  ambulatory aids on a plane soon after the quake hit.

• San Diego-based SeQual Technologies has donated $50,000 in
  oxygen supplies, working with Operation USA and Partners in Health.
  During medical emergencies, the number one drug administered is
  oxygen, and the manufacturer has donated 10 of its Eclipse POCs as
  well as other oxygen equipment to the relief effort. “Through our
  past experience of providing the eclipse in emergency and disaster
  situations, we have a clear understanding of how helpful this small
  device can be,” stated Ron Richard, SeQual CEO.

• Sunrise Medical, Longmont, Colo., has donated 380 wheelchairs to
  UCP Wheels for Humanity, which worked quickly to get wheelchairs to
  Haiti on news of the quake. The donation includes a variety of
  standard and adult custom manual wheelchairs. Since 1996, the UPC
  non-profit has focused on refurbishing wheelchairs and individually
  custom fitting them to children and adults with disabilities around
  the developing world.