Stollery Children's Hospital - Fish Tank Campaign

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by tgrover

Hi Brad,

I should ask... would you be interested in helping with this project?

No, I'm far too busy with my own sick kid But honestly, I know for a fact that the most important thing to a kid with an occluded airway is O2. Not a reef tank in the hall that is full of cyano because all the staff keep feeding it. I know that when the RT can't find a 4.0 peds trach because they ran out, that getting air in my daughter is more important than fish. I don't want to be mean, but buying a reef tank for the sick kids is like buying a 84" LED flat screen for an African village that simply needs water. Really nice thought, but pointless and wasteful in the end.
And it's not just here, we're pretty well off. Montego Bay hospital doesn't even have regulators on their O2 tanks in ER. So many kids could benefit from medical supplies with 50k. For me, a tank donation just takes away from what they really need to get better and go home.
Speaking of home, I have 10k worth of medical equipment here. I know some families can't get what they need due to wait lists.
I know there is no funding for training programs for trached kids, so my wife and I offer free training through our local PEDs unit. We donated gear to a woman up Island that adopted a Vietnamese boy with a trach, and was struggling to find all the gear. We gave her free training because there just isn't any.
A reef tank, in the big picture of needs, is really wasted dollars.