Volunteer Update: Mission Lifecycle Program’s First Classroom Session

Last month, Melissa Hendricks, senior BMET III of St. Luke’s (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Merrill Brown, TriMedx Foundation‘s mission projects manager, left for St. Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs, Haiti.

When they arrived on January 31, five students were waiting for them, ready to learn. The Haitian students were selected by St. Boniface and Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot as a part of TriMedx Foundation’s Mission Lifecycle Program, designed to establish clinical engineering departments in each hospital.

The program’s goal is to keep the hospital’s medical equipment up and running on a consistent basis. To that end, the program will cover medical terminology, enabling hospital staffers to respond to equipment failures and communicate the make, model and nature of the failure.

Melissa instructed the students on AC/DC power currents, use of a voltage meter, and why proper input voltage is important to equipment operations. Following classroom exercises included included cleaning and learning the name of each device, how it is used by a doctor, and familiarity with tools of the trade.

In the afternoons, Melissa showed the students how to perform repair and preventative maintenance rounds, ensuring each device remains in working condition.

Next, Gary Lindquist of Genesys Regional Medical Center in Michigan will serve on the March Mission Lifecycle trip to Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot. Gary will reinforce prior instruction and present each student with his own bag of tools.

If you’d like to volunteer for a mission trip, we invite you to read about upcoming opportunities here. Thanks again for your support!

Volunteer for upcoming mission projects

Dear Friends,

Our first IT class in Milot: Volunteer Joe Parmentier trains local staffers on how to terminate cables for the new wifi system.

For the first time ever, the TriMedx Foundation is impacting two hospitals in one trip: Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, and St. Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs (both in Haiti). Not only will we maximize resources and opportunities for these impoverished communities, we will do so on an on-going basis throughout 2011. That’s where you come in.

Each month, TriMedx Foundation will send one associate biomedical specialist to train local technicians at these two hospitals. To qualify for training, nationals must have the ability to read, write and speak English.

Training topics will be determined by the volunteer available for the trip. (This month Melissa Hendricks of St. Luke’s Hospital in Jacksonville, FL, will travel to St. Boniface to provide repair and hands-on training for RSQ and basic troubleshooting.) Whatever the topic, focus will be on key mission hospital functions such as lab, anesthesia, EKG, blood pressure and imaging.

If you have the knowledge, ability and desire to teach, please contact Merrill Brown to discuss open dates.

Upcoming Mission Project Dates:

• March 6-12
• April 3-9
• May 1-7
• June 5-11
• July 3-9
• August 7-13
• September 4-10
• October 2-8
• November 6-12
• December 4-10

Interested in volunteering? Contact Merrill Brown at merrill.brown@trimedxfoundation.org or (317) 275-5544.

Thank you in advance for your willingness to serve.

Celebrating 12 years of hope & health in Haiti

Twelve years ago, TriMedx volunteers responded to a plea by Sister Martha Barlai-Kovach of CRUDEM, relaying the urgent need for working medical equipment at Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, Haiti. It was then, in 1999, that our mission of hope began. Without working medical equipment, mission hospitals like Hôpital Sacré Coeur lack the tools to perform some of the most basic life-saving procedures.

And so in 2004 the TriMedx Foundation was formed to meet this need around the world. Since then, TriMedx Foundation has been a primary resource to Hôpital Sacré Coeur in providing healthcare equipment, technology training and support.

In 2011, we’re launching monthly training trips to both Hôpital Sacré Coeur and St. Boniface Hospital in Haiti. Having impacted more than one million lives to date, our goal remains to equip poverty-stricken communities to safeguard the health of its families, long after we’re gone.

We invite you to celebrate with us by taking a moment to view a three-minute preview of “Angels of Milot: Haiti’s Aftershock” above–a PBS documentary highlighting the lives impacted at Hôpital Sacré Coeur. It is through support given to TriMedx Foundation that we are able to equip medical missions like Hôpital Sacré Coeur, ensuring lives are saved through vital medical equipment.

We thank you for your time and support, and wish you a blessed 2011.

Warm regards,

Mary Owens
Development Director
TriMedx Foundation
mary.owens@trimedx.com

Big Rocks First

Over the years, I’ve come across a simple illustration that never fails to give me a shot of clarity and help get my priorities in order. Perhaps you’ve seen this too.

It goes like this: Someone drops a handful of large rocks into a jar. Just when you think the jar is full, they drop in a bunch of pebbles. “Now this thing’s really packed,” you think. Wrong.

Next comes a cup full of sand, which quickly seeps into the nooks and crannies between the rocks. You might even be able to add a cup of water.

What’s the point? The workaholics among us might say you can always fit in another activity, right? Wrong again, friend.

The point is this: If you don’t get the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in.

What are the big rocks in your life? And how does giving to those in need–impacting lives–fit into your jar?

Cheers

Andrea Emerson
[Marketing Consultant, AH Holdings]

Wifi (and life) connections

Our volunteers work to install new wifi at Hôpital Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Hospital) in Milot, Nord, Haiti.

Greater Things

One of my recurring prayers is “God, help me to see what You see and feel what You feel.”

So this past Sunday, I was overcome with emotion as the congregation belted out “God of This City.”

Greater things have yet to come; greater things are still to be done in this city. Greater things have yet to come; and greater things are still to be done here.

Whether in Haiti, Africa, or just down the street, scores of people desperately need to be shown love… and that starts with having their basic needs met.

I hope you’ll join me in praying for our volunteers in Haiti, and also praying for opportunities for you and I to show love to someone today.

Ps: Oh, and here’s that song. Someone did a nifty Haiti-themed montage around it:

Cheers,

Andrea Emerson

Sowing and Reaping

More snapshots of our first IT class in Milot (Haiti), where Joe and Rob taught two students how to terminate cables for the new wifi system.

"Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." Exodus 4:12

"Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth." Proverbs 10:4

"...those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor... If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." 1 Corinthians 12:22-23,26-27

"As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." John 9:4

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going." Ecclesiastes 9:10

"The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor." Proverbs 12:24

"Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life." Proverbs 4:13

"In everything that he undertook... he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered." 2 Chronicles 31:21