Doing the Right Thing
When Beacon Health System made the commitment earlier this year to upgrade imaging equipment across the organization, an existing CT scanner at Elkhart General could have easily been sold to recoup money spent on the six-figure machine.
However, hospital leaders saw the opportunity to fulfill a greater need by helping thousands of people in Ecuador. The scanner was donated in 2014 to Andean Health & Development, located in the South American country. Founded by Dr. David Gaus (University of Notre Dame graduate) and Notre Dame’s President Emeritus Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, Andean Health is changing the health and well-being of the poor in rural Ecuador by providing quality medical care. The scanner was installed in the new hospital, Hesburgh Hospital, in Santo Domingo, Ecuador.
Though the scanner was still operating well at Elkhart General, it suddenly becomes the most advanced scanner inside its new home in Ecuador. It will help provide clinicians diagnostic certainty when treating abdominal diseases, cancer, infections and trauma cases. Elkhart General Diagnostic Radiologist Alphonse Harding III, M.D., who is close friends with Dr. Gaus, played an important role in getting the scanner donated.
“The scanner has a second life and a renewed purpose in Ecuador, providing a valuable service to a poor place in our world,” says Dr. Harding.
Additionally, Elkhart General donated an ultrasound system to the hospital.
Thank you to the following associates for making the donations possible:
- Bill Molen, Elkhart General Radiology Manager
- Howard Schmucker, Radiology Director
- Doug George, Elkhart General Clinical Engineering
- Ed Drone, Elkhart General Clinical Engineering
- Steve Hilty, Elkhart General Clinical Engineering
- Bob Hostetler, Elkhart General Maintenance
- Greg Piper, Beacon Supply Chain Executive Director
- Kim Nymeyer, Beacon Medical Group Manager of Operations
- Ray Kiendl, Elkhart General Radiology Executive Director
