A Different Look on "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle"

Ever year about 2 million tons of medical supplies are thrown away because of the strict, though in most ways necessary, rules that  had put in place about sanitation of medical supplies. And most of the supplies and equipment are unused and could save other peoples lives. Thousands of people die because the hospital or clinic do not have the adequate medical tools or supplies. In order to help this situation, MedShare was created.

MedShare is a nonprofit organization that wants to give people the supplies they need. Because the  laws only apply to the United States, the materials can be shipped and used in other countries. So MedShare takes donations of various medical supplies from local hospitals and anyone who is willing to donate, then ship the supplies off to third world countries. Not only does this help thousands of people who die from infections that could have been prevented or because a simple, inexpensive tool breaks and the hospital can not afford anymore, but it also helps take out a lot of the waste in the dumps which helps the environment.

MedShare is an amazing organization that always needs help, like any other nonprofit. I often volunteer at the San Leandro location. It is a bit of a drive, but it is worth it. When I started volunteering there, I did not know that I would love it so much. Though it was not that long ago, I love thinking back to my first day there.

The current volunteer coordinator was stepping down that day for the new one, Gabby Brandt. MedShare requires that the first time you volunteer to go through an orientation of the place. So first we watched this video about a nursery in a hospital in Africa (I believe in Zimbabwe, but I will have to double check on it), and it said that none of the money from donations is going to the fight against HIV and AIDS. Even though they are good contributions, a lot of people are dying from other diseases. The video showed babies that were born with a breathing defect where they had to get air from a tank in order to live. There were 8 hooked up to a makeshift machine that distributed oxygen to all of then, and they had to share. On top of that there was only one nurse taking care of about 27 babies, and she was responsible for every single one of them. When another baby was born, it had the same problem and needed oxygen immediately or it would die. The doctor that delivered it tried to give it some, but the valve to the oxygen tank broke. Then he took the baby over to the nursery to see if he could use the oxygen tank there. But another baby could not be added to the oxygen system. It's lungs failed, and the baby died not long afterward. And the sad part is that a $25 valve would have saved the baby's life.

After the video, we were taken around the warehouse. We stopped at a display of something that is like a clinic in many countries. It showed a run down place where the wood was almost rotting and a sting with plastic gloves on it. Gabby said that because of the limited number of gloves in clinics, the doctors have to wash the gloves and reuse them for another surgery. She said that they would use anything to try to help someone and use all the resources that that had; they even would reuse gauze and bandages. The small hut made me so sad that we have such large hospitals with thousands of supplies, and they have to ration supplies and reuse them just to save someone's life.

We were taken though the aisles that contained thousands of boxes and equipment. It was fascinating seeing everything. There was old and new equipment, some that had seen better days, but still look reliable. All the box sizes were amazing. I just remember being towered by everything, even more so than what I feel in Costco because at least there are a lot of people. In the area where I actually do the community service, Gabby went over all of the different barrels of supplies and went over our project. The service work that we do there is go through donations and categorize or box them. This time we were doing the first sort where dates do not matter unless you are shipping something, then the expiration date is required because if the item is expired it can not leave the country and gets stuck in customs. There is first sort, then second sort, and then third sort.

First sort is the easiest, but it can be difficult to know where things go because all the medical jargon is sometimes difficult to decipher. Second sort is when we have to go through first sort and divide the items up into different subcategories of the item. In this part dates matter, and anything that is expired is put aside. Sometimes expired items are still useable, and the expiration just tells you that the it is no longer sterile after that date. Another thing that has to be checked is that MedShare only ships items that expire a year from that date because they might sit in the warehouse for a while. So they get put in Short Dated and they would go into the warehouse's medical supplies for doctors that need supplies for other countries, like for Doctors Without Borders. It can be then taken out of the package and placed into non-sterile supplies. Then third sort is just boxing enough of the same supplies in to a box and making a label. Then the box will go into inventory and wait to be picked. For the most part, we do one of these for 3 hours.

So far, this is my favorite place to do community service. But because of the distances, it's difficult to volunteer there. We go about once a month if we can, though I would like to go maybe twice a month if I can. We became regulars a while ago and got plastic name tags instead of the temporary ones. And we just got to 30 hours not too long about, which means we have been doing this for over 10 months which I am proud of. even though that is not very many hours. Even though I have to wake up early on Saturdays and drive for 40 minutes, it is worth it to feel like I have made a difference. The community service that I have done there has actually made decide to go into biomedical engineering because I want to help people and maybe be a part in creating something that is inexpensive, reusable, and accessible for third world countries. So far, that is my goal, and if that means four more years of school, that is perfectly fine with me.