MedShare Equips Medical Mission Team Doing Critical Work in Egypt

A letter from our partner, Global Healthcare & Education Initiative (GHEI)

Greetings MedShare family,

I have returned from a pediatric cardiology mission at a AlNas charity hospital in Cairo, Egypt coinciding with a biomedical engineering repair mission at the pediatric general referral hospital also in Cairo (Abu Reesh Hospital).

Having two parallel missions at the same time was no small task but with the preparation that had gone into the trip (for almost one month) it was a largely successful one!

I would comfortably say that the highlight of my role at both missions was the donations of medical supplies and biomedical equipment that I gathered from MedShare in Atlanta and New Jersey. I personally packed four suitcases full of medical supplies and mailed out the contents of at least 3-4 suitcases to other volunteers who joined on the trip. We were a total of 26 volunteers, a full team of surgeons, cardiologists, nurses, respiratory therapists, interventional cardiologists, perfusionists and biomedical engineers.

On the biomedical side, thanks to MedShare we were able to donate a large supply of bacterial filters, blood pressure cuffs, portable blood pressure monitors, spO2 sensors — all crucial accessories for their medical devices.

On the medical supplies side, we were able to donate surgical instruments, wound gauze, ambu bags, laryngoscopes, bandages, masks, cpap masks, arterial cath kits, tracheostomy supplies and many other items that were so appreciated when handed to the medical staff.

Egypt is going through difficult times economically due to the scarcity of foreign currency and importing has been more difficult than ever, medical supplies are no exception so many items are scarce or exceedingly expensive to procure. The supplies we brought over were such a relief for them it was heartwarming to see the staff gaze at the items like newly found treasures.

We thank all the staff of MedShare for making the supplies available to countries that don’t have access to such supplies. Everyone is doing an amazing job and I am echoing this back to you.

Best regards,

Tarek ElShayal
on behalf of Global Healthcare & Education initiative
www.gheiworld.org