Sharing the wealth is a basic part of doing business at the
Morgan Hill Rotary Club and their latest endeavor, with Saint
Louise Regional Hospital, will benefit a medical clinic near Buenos
Aires, Argentina. The hospital is donating equipment valued at
$250,000 for use in a Rotary project in that South American
country, hard hit by economic depression.
Sharing the wealth is a basic part of doing business at the Morgan Hill Rotary Club and their latest endeavor, with Saint Louise Regional Hospital, will benefit a medical clinic near Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The hospital is donating equipment valued at $250,000 for use in a Rotary project in that South American country, hard hit by economic depression.
Lou Mirviss, international director for the local club, working with Rotarian Peter Anderson – who has family in Buenos Aires – and Mary Nelson, SLRH manager of diagnostic imaging, put the deal together.
Anderson attended a Christmas party of a Rotary Club near the clinic and met a doctor who was “begging” for help for the clinic.
“He buttonholed me and said ‘maybe you guys could help fund this. With Lou Mirviss’ magical connections with Mary at Saint Louise, we struck gold.”
Buenos Aires has 10 million people, Anderson said.
“The core is definitely a first world city but, when you get out to the perimeters, it’s a different world. These very poor settlements – hovels actually – have become an uncomfortable environment.”
The area does have electricity – from the days of Evita, Anderson said.
Some of the people work, others beg or steal, he said. There is no medical care at all. The clinic which is to become home to Saint Louise equipment is on the fringe of one of these small settlements.
“This particular clinic,” he said, “is a satellite of one of Buenos Aires’ major hospitals and specializes in difficult pregnancies. The best piece of equipment for diagnosing problems are the ultrasounds.”
The clinic now uses a small, tabletop machine borrowed from a “very nice doctor”, Anderson said. “It’s a light duty instrument and can’t print out images.” Printouts, he said, are important for comparisons and checks later on.
Anderson said it is important to work with an in-country club.
“In order to make this work, you have to demonstrate a linkage between the local club and an overseas club,” he said. “The money goes from one club to another, not to a government ministry.”
Mirviss talked to Nelson, who acts as purchasing agent for the hospital imaging equipment.
Nelson was immediately helpful and asked for a wish list of what the clinic could use, Mirviss said.
“They must have had a very big catalogue,” she laughed, “because it was quite a long list.” Between Rotary and Saint Louise the list was scaled down to what could be donated. The final list includes a 1,300 pound mammography machine and a small X-ray machine. They hope in the near future to have an ultrasound machine too.
“We have no date yet but we will try to get one free,” Nelson said. She also said that SLRH has donated equipment before – through the San Jose Rotary Club.
Though used, the donated equipment can still serve the medical needs in Argentina.
“Equipment expires (by California standards) and can’t be used at the hospital anymore,” Mirviss said. But most equipment still has life in it, she said.
“Machines can last years and years,” Nelson said. “ We did an upgrade.” She said mammography machines are controlled by very strict standards and, when they can’t be used any longer in California, they can be used elsewhere.”
Nelson, who lives in Hollister, has been with SLRH for eight years, managing her department for four.
”Mammography is my passion,” she said.
Finding the equipment was only the first part of the job.
It is not an easy job to get delicate, large and weighty equipment boxed up and sent many thousands of miles. Until that can be done, the machines wait at Saint Louise.
Rotarians David Bischoff and Russ Danielson are working with Mirviss to take delivery of the equipment from the hospital, have it packed into crates, arrange for a shipper and deliver it to the dock in Oakland.
A Rotary Club in Bolivia has donated a few thousand dollars to cover the costs of shipping and expenses, added to $1,000 the Morgan Hill Rotary has already donated, Mirviss said.
Rotary recently presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Saint Louise’s representatives, Nelson, Vivian Smith, director of public relations, and Rita Garcia, support services director.
“It’s terribly rewarding to see stuff like this happen,” Anderson said. “International service is part of the Rotary world but most clubs don’t get too involved. Morgan Hill Rotary does.
