The doctors didn’t think the tiny infant had a chance, as they performed an emergency surgery on the baby’s not even a week after it was born. Why would this child have a chance when he was born with congenital diaphramic hernia, a rare disease that meant over half of his diaphragm was dangerously exposed?

The baby’s condition was not discovered until after his birth. Immediately upon discovering that the infant had some sort of unique and very possibly life threatening disease, the doctors hooked up the struggling infant to a series of different pieces of medical equipment to keep him alive while tests were done to determine what exactly the problem was.

Five days after the baby was born, he underwent a risky surgery to repair his hernia. The doctors inserted a patch to close up the diaphragm and it was touch and go for over two weeks. Because of the surgery and advanced medical equipment used, not even a month later the baby was allowed declared healthy enough to go home. His parents and doctors were overjoyed.

Five years later this child is an active and fully functioning little boy. Yes he still has to be careful about opening the patch over his diaphragm and has a low immune system due to an underdeveloped lung yet, he is a happy child who has big dreams for his future.

Twenty years ago the American Medical Resources Foundation was started to donate medical equipment to needy communities worldwide. The foundation was started by two caring individuals from Bedford Mass when they saw the excessive amount of medical equipment that went to waste when doctors and hospitals updated their machines.

Since the company’s start in the late eighties almost a half billion dollars has been shipped to almost 200 hospitals in many different countries. They have gotten used medical equipment donated by many different hospitals and cities, and have sent over 500 containers to third world countries.

As well as donations of money and medical supplies, AMRF has been working hard opening new training centers for technicians and bio medical engineers who are responsible for the repair of the medical equipment. According to the company this is the best way to ensure that in the future the foundation will continue on its path of helping the less fortunate in the future.

It is the beginning of a new era at Parkview Regional Medical Center. Constructions plans are underway to modernize the Fort Wayne 400 bed hospital by instating state of the art technology into the system.

Some of the grand plans include reconfiguring rooms and outlets to make optimum use of advanced medical equipment. Rooms will come equipped with strategically centered windows so patients can be monitored by nurses at all times. Wireless technology will allow contact to be made between patients and medical personnel whenever necessary, and there will be smart sheets in every room that monitor patients automatically.

Aside from advanced technology and medical equipment, the hospital is putting in comfortable beds and furniture for family members who want to spend time with their loved ones. On a different note, special educational rooms will be set up to instruct patients on proper care after leaving the hospital, as well as rooms for the nurse to use when taking their breaks.

These plans have been carefully thought out and discussed for more than a year now. The goal of the hospital is to make patients feel at home and while getting the best care and service possible.

A team of highly specialized doctors from Stanford Hospital were flown to Iraq by the Medical Alliance for Iraq this past winter to help create a formal system for emergency medicine. After visiting many health care facilities there, the doctors were shocked by the abysmal state of medical care and equipment they found. In fact the most advanced piece of medical equipment available was an oxygen tank that was being used on an asthmatic patient.

A thorough examination of the current system was done and shocking results became apparent. The Iraqi first response system lacks ambulances and a 911 system so patients are not stabilized before getting to the hospital. Once inside the facility, there is no way of evaluating what is wrong with the patient, so often times treatment does not reach the patients in time. The emergency rooms are extremely overcrowded, and there is not enough medical equipment or personnel to go around.

The American doctors spent weeks touring Iraqi hospitals and training Iraqi doctors in both basic and advanced medical techniques. This included the proper use of medical equipment such as testing for internal bleeding by using a portable ultrasound machine.

The team of doctors started the process of updating the Iraqis on current medical literature and procedures after being cut off from international medicine for so many years. Now the goal is to keep making progress by building better facilities and training doctors so the Iraqi health care system can stand on its own.

73 year old George Woods has become the first man in Canada to be fitted with a remote heart monitor. He received the new wireless defibrillator last week at the Hospital in Newmarket.

The tiny device continuously tests monitors his heart and alerts medical staff to any changes or potential problems.

His nurse says that with this patient monitor, Mr Woods would only need to go to the hospital if the transmitted reports show a problem that can't be fixed remotely.