Medical Supplies
Our medical supply acquisition and redistribution program is our flagship and most successful program. Every year, hospitals around the country either pay to incinerate or dump in landfills thousands of tons of medical supplies that were never used of have become outdated. At the same time, hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of people around the world die and suffer because of a lack of the most basic of medical supplies—gloves, syringes, sutures, and so on. We work to help bridge this gap.
We receive a constant influx of nearly anything that can be found in a hospital or a clinic, from alcohol pads and catheters to electric beds and X-ray machines. Our supplies come from several area hospitals throughout the Midwest. We are usually able to pick up supplies within several hundred miles of the Michigan-Ohio and Michigan-Indiana border, but can make special arrangements for shipments of considerable quantity or value. From small boxes of a few test tubes to semi trucks containing equipment and thousands of boxes, we take any supplies that are in good, functional condition.
Volunteers then spend thousands of hours sorting through our donations, meticulously packaging, labeling, and inventorying every item. Lists are sent to hospitals we have identified as good matches, from which they choose what supplies they can use, after which we prepare and ship usually on 40’ shipboard containers. The shipping costs are significant but are fully financed by contributions of those who care and believe in reaching out to the afflicted, the poor, the war-ravaged.
Especially in demand are the following:
- Wheelchairs
- Crutches
- Orthopedic equipment
- Sutures
- Gloves
- Gauze, bandages
- Ob/Gyn supplies (specula, etc)
- Needles, syringes
- Surgical tools
- Hospital beds
- Gurneys
- Sphygmomanometers
- Weight Scales
- Blood Glucometers
- Diabetic supplies
- Medication (within at least 18 mos. of expiration)
However, we collect far more supplies. You can see the contents of the Tanzania container here:
