Kamloops Fire Rescue is making it easier for Royal Inland Hospital to “rescue” patients with respiratory issues.
The department will present RIH with a cheque for roughly $24,000 on Tuesday. The donation comes from the proceeds of the department’s 2013 Firefighter’s Calendar, an annual fundraising effort for RIH and the B.C. Professional Firefighters’ Burn Fund.
The 2013 calendar brought in about $47,000 according to Chief Fire Prevention Officer Dean Olstad. Fifty per cent of the proceeds will go to the hospital and 50 per cent to the burn fund.
“People do get burns in our area so we support the B.C. Burn Fund for that reason,” Olstad said. “The people that we deal with do end up in the hospital as well, so we donate to RIH to give them the best care possible.”
Jenna Mitchell, Communications and family fundraising co-ordinator for the RIH Foundation, said the money will be used to buy a state-of-the-art BiPAP ventilator. The ventilator will help to reduce the need for invasive mechanical ventilation, reducing costs, complications and length of hospital stays.
Mitchell said Kamloops Fire Rescue generally helps fund projects at RIH that help patients who have a respiratory or burn-related injury.
This will be the fourth year Kamloops Fire and Rescue has donated the proceeds of the calendar sale to RIH. More than $20,000 was donated from the 2012 calendar to help build the new intensive-care unit at RIH.
The cheque presentation will take place in the first-floor lobby of RIH, at 11:30 a.m.
Calendars are now available at Fire Hall One at 1205 Summit Dr.
