They've arrived!
The machines that create the theme-tune of all hospitals everywhere.
beep...beep...beep
The machines that alert us to when a patient needs urgent intervention.
beeeeeeeeeeep!
The (only) machines that are able to revive a person back from certain death with an electric shock pulsed through the heart.
CLEAR!
The machines that are so essential to survival that they are literally called vital sign monitors
And....the machines that do not exist in Tintswalo hospital 🤯
NO MORE!
Mark and Liz Prohaska 👆 of Procamed delivering 80kg of meticulously refurbished state-of-the-art "ZOLL" patient monitors in Switzerland.
Yes that's right....even bluetooth... #thatshowweroll 🎩
So that means with our original budget for only 1 (basic) patient monitor, we can now have SIX state-of-the-art machines delivered with ALL the functionalities/bells/whistles (and each worth over ten thousand USD 🎈).
The medics among us can nerd-out on the specs here
Sp02 (with adult and paediatric probes + spares) i.e. measures how much oxygen is in your blood...ESSENTIAL to monitor in COVID...and everything else...
BP (with adult and paediatric cuffs + spares) i.e. Blood pressure, another vital sign...
ECG (12 leads) i.e. monitoring the heart rhythm and responsible for the beeps...
EtCO2 (mainstream) i.e. the gadget that made us docs weep with relief..it allows us to monitor ventilated patients MUCH better...
Defibrillator (Paddles) i.e. the the "shock" delivered to the heart...and with reusable paddles to ensure longevity
Pacing function i.e. allowing us to deliver continuous shocks to help the heart stabilize
Let's just keep in mind that from over 50 emails I sent to major medical equipment companies asking for assistance, I was lucky if I got an automated reply.
From Procamed (the leading defibrillator provider in Switzerland) we got an immediate and generous response, with the husband-and-wife CEO team, personally overseeing every step of the donation from testing to delivery 👇.
It is so obvious when a company is run with humanity and passion.
Liz and Mark's family business since 1983.
The monitors are now waiting in Switzerland, and will be packed into your author's suitcases for delivery to Tintswalo in a few weeks!
______
As a side note...The South Africans among us would have immediately noticed the ZOLL brand name of the devices...
Here, a "zol" is the popular slang for a joint of marijuana...and it was recently made famous by our Minister of Health Nkosana Dlamini Zuma, who (in a very boring press conference defending her anti-COVID measures of banning tobacco related products), whipped out the term "zol" (see 2min30sec) arguing that sharing zols can transmit COVID through "saliva on the paper".
...The speech was of course immediately made into a song with a dedicated video:
Let's hope I can pass through customs with 80kg of ZOLL!
From the bottom of our hearts: Thank-you Procamed for this generous donation.