Baby in Cuba to receive ventilator from Watson Lake

Baby in Cuba to receive ventilator from Watson Lake
Redundant medical equipment from the old Watson Lake hospital is being
sent to Latin America
CBC News Posted: Jan 22, 2016 1:57 PM CT Last Updated: Jan 22, 2016 1:57
PM CT

A baby girl in Cuba is scheduled to receive a life-changing medical
device thanks, in part, to volunteers in Watson Lake, Yukon.

In October, the Yukon Hospital Corporation donated about 60 items of
medical equipment from the old Watson Lake hospital to MEMO, a
Christian organization that sends medical equipment and supplies to Cuba
and El Salvador.

One of the items donated, a ventilator, will go to the family of a
one-year-old baby in Cuba. The baby girl was born with a condition that
required her to get a tracheotomy and forced her to remain at the
hospital where there is access to a ventilator to assist with breathing.

Other items sent to MEMO from the Yukon include stretchers, X-ray
equipment and a maternity bed.

John Hall of Watson Lake is a MEMO volunteer who, along with his wife
Naomi, helped organize the equipment transfer.

"That's just one of those miracles," he says about the ventilator going
to someone with an acute need. The device should allow the baby to leave
the hospital with her parents.

Once MEMO identified the ventilator in Watson Lake, the next challenge
was transportation. Fortunately, another Watson Laker volunteered
to drive the equipment to Thunder Bay, Ont., where MEMO is based.

"Sometimes its just a matter of being in the right place at the right
time and it's happened over and over again," says Hall.

The organization says a tourist has been found to take the ventilator to
Cuba at the end of January.

The Yukon Hospital Corporation says Carol Chiasson, facility
administrator at Watson Lake Community Hospital, was also instrumental
in helping get the permission to donate the equipment rather than throw
it away.

Source: Baby in Cuba to receive ventilator from Watson Lake - North -
CBC News -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/baby-in-cuba-to-receive-ventilator-from-watson-lake-1.3415683