noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646
DURHAM -- In a warehouse on South LaSalle Street, the cartons, piled on top of each other, stretch down a long aisle. They are filled with surgical masks and gloves, lab supplies, syringes, bandages, dressings, antiseptic solutions and other basic medical supplies.
The supplies are from Duke Hospital, but they won't be used for patients at Duke.
They are headed to small villages in Latin America, poor rural clinics in Africa, urban slums in Asia.
The supplies are usable surplus, made available through REMEDY, a volunteer-run program at the university, to Duke-affiliated groups or individuals who participate in medical service trips abroad.
"We get surplus that comes from various areas of the hospital, and we see what's usable," said John Lohnes, a Duke physical therapist who's one of the REMEDY coordinators. "We get disposable-type items, like bandage supplies or syringes, single-use items that for various reasons we can't cycle back into the Duke supply chain."
REMEDY, which began in 1966 when several Duke medical students began collecting surplus to donate to charities, collects and donates around 400 boxes of supplies a year and has made contributions to more than 30 different overseas projects.
The program also receives materials that are being phased out. "A surgeon, for instance, might now use a different type of bender," Lohnes said. "And we get some things that can't be used at the hospital, like a sterile procedure pack from the OR, if the outer wrapping is damaged."
Duke doesn't have a license to reprocess some of these disposable items, and is not allowed to redistribute the materials within the United States, "but inside a damaged packet there are a lot of clean, usable things that can be used," Lohnes said. "It's probably not worth it to reopen the package but it's certainly worth it to donate."
It's certainly worth it for Family Health Ministries. The Durham-based non-profit supports programs in maternal and child health, nutrition, education and church development in Haiti and other underserved areas.
"In Haiti, they have real simple medical needs and need real basic supplies, like gauze dressing changes, surgical masks, straight IV lines," said Kathy Wallmer, the group's executive director.
"If we did not have these supplies, people in Haiti simply would go without them. One time a physician down there couldn't find a scalpel to do an emergency C-section. That just seems incredible, but that's the kind of supplies they need -- and that we're able to bring them, because of REMEDY."
REMEDY obtains the supplies and boxes them up, and the organizations pick them up from the warehouse on South Lasalle Street, on a regular basis.
"What we have is pretty much equal to what's requested," Lohnes said. "At the hospital, we've been trying to work on reducing the amount of surplus because of sustainability issues and it would be ideal if we didn't have any surplus. But we're always going to have some in the system."
They had an estimated $1,500 worth of supplies -- dressing materials, lab supplies, syringes, gloves, masks and more -- for a mission group from St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. The supplies went to the Nueva Vida Clinic in Cuidad Sandino in Nicaragua.
"The supplies "filled an important need for those who receive the surplus," said Nancy Rosebaugh, a Duke nurse and a member of the mission group. "They made a tremendous difference to my group of travelers, as well as to the recipients in Nueva Vida Clinic."
