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Johnston, a Gundersen Lutheran nurse for 34 years, recently visited Indonesia to assess medical equipment needs in Lampung on the island of Sumatra.
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James White loads a truck with medical supplies from Franciscan Skemp. The donated supplies are being sent to Indonesia.
Erik Daily |
The trip was part of a larger church mission.
Trained at St. Francis Nursing School, Johnston is organizing the equipment donation drive. She said Gundersen Lutheran had no extra medical equipment, but Franciscan Skemp donated examination and procedure tables, gurneys, stands, IV poles and other equipment.
The donations were loaded Monday and taken to a warehouse for storage.
“As soon as we get a full container, we’ll send over the equipment,” Johnston said. “I’m still looking for 100 patient beds.”
Johnston said the Sumatra hospital was clean but antiquated. A doctor often performs two surgeries at once in the same operating room, she said.
“Their beds are metal, and they use sticks to prop up the head,” she said. “It looks more like a hospital from the 1930s.”
Dan Bagniewski, Franciscan Skemp director of environmental services, said Franciscan Skemp regularly participates in global medical missions. “This is the tenth truck I’ve loaded in five to six years,” he said.
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