Medical foundation donates medical equipment

August 06, 2008

Bedford Minuteman

By Chris Klingenberg / Staff Writer Wed Aug 06, 2008, 03:10 PM EDT

Bedford, Mass. –
Kay Barney and his son-in-law came up with the idea to start the American Medical Resources Foundation 20 years ago.

The American Medical Resources Foundation donates medical equipment and hospital supplies to hospitals serving needy communities worldwide. In 20 years, the American Medical Resources Foundation has donated more than $400,000,000 to over 190 hospitals in 87 countries in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

“At the time when we started up the foundation there was a great deal of medical equipment being replaced and the old equipment was going to waste,” said Barney. “We wanted a use for that equipment and giving it to third world countries seemed like a good idea.”

Recently, Carleton-Willard Village has supported the foundation by donating an electric wheelchair, crutches, walkers, canes and beds.

“From time to time, we tend to have leftover medical equipment that we hate to see go to waste,” Director of Assisted Living Lois Young said. “I think that it is great to be able to help out the foundation because so much of our stuff just gets thrown away and into landfills. But that is a waste and we really like to help out as much as we can.”

“Carleton-Willard has been very helpful,” said Barney. “Over the four years that I have been a Resident here, we have had several collections from Carleton-Willard and it is great to see people that care and are willing to help out our foundation.”

American Medical Resources Foundation is currently working on containers for hospitals in the Philippines, Guatemala and Argentina. In 2008, the AMRF has already shipped one container to hospitals in Kenya and two to hospitals in Tanzania.

“We didn’t really anticipate the need as great as it was when we first started the foundation,” said Barney. “We have shipped over 400 and 500 containers to other countries and we are doing whatever we can to try and met the needs of these hospitals. We have gained a lot of experience and have learned a lot of places from a geographical standpoint that we had never heard of.”

The efforts by Barney and the people at Carleton-Willard have gone a long way and have made a tremendous difference in the world.

“We will continue on,” said Barney. “We have set up training programs that are requested to train the technicians and bio-medical engineers that are responsible for the maintenance and repair of the products. We are working hard in the training aspect to ensure that things continue to go well for the foundation in the years to come.”