Oct. 22, 2008 — A shared interest in improving health-care services at the Schneider Regional Medical Center prompted the donation Wednesday of more than $60,000 worth of new emergency-room equipment from four major donors through the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands.
During a presentation at the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Center to unveil the new equipment, CFVI board chairman Ricardo Charaf was joined by Ed Miller from QT Investment Managers, Robert O'Connor and hospital representatives. The equipment includes a Level One Fluid Warning System and a Micro Maxx Ultrasound System designed to assist trauma patients.
Richard Driehaus, who also helped to finance the donation, was unable to attend Wednesday's ceremony.
The donation is timely, particularly in light of the recent influx of trauma patients to the hospital, medical center officials said. Gunshot and stab-wound victims come in on an almost-daily basis, and the new equipment can help determine whether a patient needs emergency-room care and stabilize them while they're en route, according to Dr. Clayton Wheatley, the hospital's chief emergency-room physician.
"Most people don't know that if a trauma patient can be helped and resuscitated within the first hour after an incident, it increases their chance of survival," he said. "What the portable ultrasound machine is able to do is make a quick determination — between 30 seconds to two minutes — of whether there is blood in the patient's abdomen. And the sooner we know that, the sooner we can assemble our resources in the emergency room. When you're on the front lines, you have to know right up front what's going on."
The ultrasound can also detect internal bleeding associated with ectopic pregnancies, Wheatley said. It works in conjunction with the Level One Fluid Warning System, which is designed to quickly disburse intravenous fluids to trauma patients, according to the hospital's chief surgeon, Dr. Frank Odlum.
"Many people don't realize that trauma patients can suffer from hypothermia, and if that happens, then their blood won't clot," Odlum said. "The Level One System can disburse a one-liter bag of fluid within one and a half to two minutes. The liquid in the system is warm, and that's the first thing we want the patient to be getting."
QT Investment Managers will also finance a training seminar to teach medical center staff and emergency medical service technicians how to operate the machines.
The investment firm's chairman, Alan Quasha, serves as chairman of the New York-based Brain Trauma Foundation, and in 2009 he will bring the organization's work to the territory, according to Miller.
"The key to the successful treatment of a brain injury is fast action — particularly relieving pressure on the brain," said Miller, the firm's managing director. "What the Brain Trauma Foundation has done is develop a set of protocols for emergency medical services and emergency-room staff to help stabilize these patients."
The eight-hour training seminar, "Guidelines for Prehospital Management of Traumatic Brain Injury," has already been taught at 250 sites throughout the mainland, according to the foundation's statistics.
Wednesday's donation also includes a Reliance 7000 Ophthalmology Power Chair and Projector System that will help determine "how bad an eye injury is," according to Wheatley.
"This is the Community Foundation at its best, uniting with a number of donors who are committed to the territory and understand the importance of working with the hospital to continue to improve health-care services, " said CFVI President Dee Baecher-Brown after Wednesday's presentation. "It's also fitting that this gift was presented at the Kimelman Cancer Center, which bears the name of CFVI's founding donors."
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
