|
On Nov. 8, a group drawn from the College and local communities gathered at
Dick's House for Dartmouth
College Health Service's donation of ophthalmology equipment to the nonprofit
organization Global Health
Cares (GHC). "This is serendipity, things have happened just as we
needed them," says Chris Fields, an optometrist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and
president of GHC, which he cofounded with Jay Jordan, an optometrist in private
practice in Rochester, N.H.
From left: Gerald Thomas, College Health Service associate director for
administration; Jack Turco; Debra Fisk, College Health Service purchasing;
Chris Fields; Bill Hochstin, materials manager in Dartmouth Procurement and
Auxiliary Services; and Macy Lawrence, head of the Woodstock Rotary Club's
international committee. (Photo by Sarah Memmi)
|
Fields's organization is working to improve health care in southwestern
Nicaragua, in part by replacing outdated and inadequate equipment in two
hospitals. With the aid of the Rotary
Club of Woodstock, Vt., GHC has been gathering donated medical equipment
that it will ship to Nicaragua for arrival in spring 2007.
Dartmouth's contribution is a slit-lamp bio-microscope, which is an
essential tool for eye examinations, and an ophthalmologist's chair. "We
found over the last few years that we had reduced use for the equipment,"
says Jack Turco, director of the College Health Service. "But it is in
excellent condition and we felt that it could be put to much better use by
donating it to a worthy cause."
Fields estimates that a slit-lamp alone would cost $15,000 to purchase new.
This donation, he says, will provide the community hospital in Rivas,
Nicaragua, with the equipment it needs to offer eye-care services.
By SARAH MEMMI
|
RSS/XML Feed