Kawartha Credit Union gift supports safe surgery

The Kawartha Credit Union’s Community Involvement Program is helping to keep RMH patients safe during surgery.

On November 18th, Michelle Finley and Kreg McKenzie, Branch Managers of Kawartha Credit Union’s Lindsay and Little Britain branches, visited RMH to present a cheque for $5,000 to contribute toward the cost of the Hospital’s new anaesthetic gas machines.

An anesthetic gas machine is more than a drug-delivery system in the operating room. It also monitors the patient’s vital signs, registering the smallest changes in a patient’s status, with alarms that alert the team to potential danger.

The new technology allows anaesthetists to customize their workstations to the patient’s individual needs. For example, patients with lung disease such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, require special attention to the volume and pressure of air going through their lungs. During surgery, the anaesthetist watches the monitors on the anaesthetic gas machine carefully to report changes to the surgeon.

Every case is different. Having this new technology in the OR helps the surgeon and anaesthetist to give each patient the safest care possible.

“The team at Kawartha Credit Union is exceptionally supportive of the Hospital,” said Erin Coons, RMHF Executive Director. “The funds they’re providing for the purchase of anaesthetic gas machines now tops a long line of medical equipment needs they’ve supported over the years, such as echocardiogram and dialysis machines, MRI and the CT scanner. We’re so appreciative of their generosity.”