Trying to donate a piece of medical equipment is difficult, no matter what it is.  There are multiple walkers, toilet chairs, “grabbers”, and a wheelchair tucked in various corners of Dad’s garage and outbuilding.  Each were hospital ordered after various orthopedic surgeries for either Mom or Dad over the last couple of decades.

The largest piece of durable medical equipment by far was Mom’s hospital bed.  When she transferred from Memory Care to a Skilled Nursing Facility, the hospital beds were provided.  She had used Her bed for less than a year, and it was in pristine condition. There were electronic controls for adjusting the height, head and foot.  A hand crank was underneath for adjustments if a power source wasn’t available.  For several months after she moved out of Memory Care, it was stored in a utility room which prevented any other items from being easily retrieved….and it took up a LOT of space.

I wanted to give it away to someone who truly needed it, and started calling around to various donation facilities and charities, including those who support the homeless population, Veterans, and organizations that outfit homes for the disabled.  All declined the hospital bed citing various rules and regulations prohibiting them from accepting anything previously used by a patient.  This made absolutely NO sense to me.  When a person enters the hospital and stays overnight in a room, they sleep on a hospital bed used previously by thousands of other people.  They don’t discard a hospital bed after every patient!  I knew there HAD to be a place that would gladly take an almost perfect condition, fully functional hospital bed with 2 different mattresses- one brand new!

One day, last fall, I finally made the right call.  A friend of my father’s came over to help me load the bed into the back of my SUV.  After folding down the rear seat and Carefully planning the placement of the pieces, we were able to get ALL of the bed, including both mattresses, secured for the 3 hour long trip the following day.

Early morning, October 11, 2019, Dad and I set off on our journey to deliver the bed.  Our destination?  Samaritan’s Purse Medical Mission Warehouse, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

We arrived and were greeted by gentlemen who unloaded the bed and reassembled it on the spot.  They had to make certain it was in good working order for acceptance.  These photos were taken from the delivery bay at the corner of the M A M M O T H medical supply warehouse.  The scope and scale of this facility is difficult to comprehend from the pictures.

Before leaving the warehouse, we were offered a tour. Being a nurse and seeing all of the medical paraphernalia stacked as far as the eye could see, I jumped at the opportunity.  Previously, I only associated Samaritan’s Purse with the Operation Shoebox project which sends “shoeboxes” of small toys, clothing, hygiene items, and school supplies to children around the world at Christmas.

Seeing the diversity of medical equipment and supplies already sorted and tagged for hospitals around the globe left me speechless.  The items you see to the left are all grouped and tagged for a destination in Africa.

Items are sorted according to the individual medical facilities’ specific requests and needs.  The supplies for each destination is carefully itemized, and all materials have to be meticulously documented prior to packaging for transport.  Customs paperwork has to be thorough, and all regulations for shipping internationally to various countries have to be satisfied.

The wooden box in the photo above has a tent along with the poles, fittings, instructions and tools.   Note the aisle of medical equipment….and the dozens of rows of shelves packed to the ceiling, stretched as far as you could see.

The reason I was compelled to write this post at this time are the three photos above, taken from inside a tent.  The images are somewhat dark, but electricity was not set up inside the tent in the building. This is a field hospital…..possibly part of the one set up one week ago in Central Park, New York City.

A few weeks ago, I saw a report on television about Samaritan’s Purse mobilizing to set up a field hospital in Northern Italy.  Now, as COVID-19 marches further around the globe, we are witnessing events in our own country we never imagined we would see in our lifetime.  But this global disaster unfolds hour by hour.  The scene on the news last week of the field hospital being set up in Central Park, the first established there since the Civil War, is one of those indescribable events.  To see the mock up in person and take the photos is one thing.  But then to view on television what is possibly the same tent, beds, monitors, IV poles, and other medical equipment in the photo being set up to save the lives of our fellow citizens in Central Park is surreal.  This park is now full of people, but they are either caring for patients, or they are laying in beds struggling to breathe.  Instead Central Park’s East Meadow should be bustling with families on picnics,  playing with their dogs, and strolling hand-in-hand over the Easter holiday.

These are just a few of the dozens of tractor trailer trucks that transport supplies domestically to disaster relief areas, and are garaged in another section of the warehouse.  Also parked are trucks outfitted with tools, showers and bathrooms, and kitchens to service the hundreds of workers mobilized to help the relief effort.  Large cargo planes are kept at an airport close by, ready to be loaded at a moments notice and travel to places throughout the world.

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Now back to my Mom’s hospital bed, and the reason for the journey to the North Wilkesboro in the first place.  When Mom passed beyond this life on August 28 of last year, I decided to make it my mission to dispense of her belongings in a meaningful way.  I did not want to go through the house in one swoop, empty out all of her clothing, craft items, books, or even her medical supplies, and have them trucked off to just any donation site.  I needed Mom’s life, her legacy to continue in a meaningful way.  

I called Samaritan’s Purse this morning to ask permission for my blog to use their organization’s name, along with photos I’d personally taken during an donation drop off last fall.  The gentleman I spoke with said “No problem! You didn’t even need to ask”!  I thanked him, shared with him a little about Mom and her hospital bed, and commented that I wish I knew where that bed was.  He responded “You know, it could be in either Italy or New York right now”.

My Mom was a nurse, too, and she was so proud of her profession! At this moment, I quietly think that perhaps Mom is holding onto someone’s hand, silently comforting them now in their time of need.  For every person isolated from their loved ones as they hang onto life, I pray Mom will help watch over them as their medical team works tirelessly to heal them.  And may she find whoever is laying in Her bed right now, and bring them peace.

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For more information on Samaritan’s Purse and what they are doing to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic, please go to https://www.samaritanspurse.org/ and look at International Disaster Relief.  Thank you for reading!