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Source: 27 Dec. The Morning Call. Allentown, PA, USA. at http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3-3pacedec27,0,6023501.story?coll=all%2Dnewslocal%2Dhed Lehigh Valley cardiologist finds new use for outdated and used medical supplies >From pacemakers to catheters, hospitals in India can use them all. By Tracy Jordan, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dr. Daniel Mascarenhas opens a suitcase in the basement of his Bethlehem Township home to reveal the items he will be taking with him when he visits his native India next month. ''You will be shocked,'' he warns, revealing his own amazement. ''Some of it is brand new in the packaging.'' In two months, Mascarenhas has collected thousands of dollars worth of cardiac medical supplies intended for the garbage bin. There are balloons worth $300 each, catheters worth $600 each, stents worth $1,000 each, pacemakers worth $5,000 each and a defibrillator worth $25,000. Except for the pacemakers and defibrillator, which were removed from patients in the hospital or from corpses at funeral homes, the equipment is no longer wanted by hospitals and medical supply companies because the expiration dates have lapsed. ''It has to be legally dumped because it cannot be used for any people in this country,'' Mascarenhas said. ''They give it to me because they know I'm going to put it to good use.'' Mascarenhas estimates he has delivered more than $500,000 in medical supplies during the past several years to hospitals in India, where medical equipment is so scarce doctors readily install used pacemakers. ''The problem here is one infection, and lawyers are going to be jumping all over it,'' Mascarenhas said. ''These people in India have used these pacemakers without any problems. This is like having found gold.'' At Sion University Hospital in Bombay, Dr. Suleman Merchant says the equipment is saving lives. ''Although cannot be reused in your country, …many indigent members of our community are receiving a new lease on life,'' Merchant wrote in a letter about Mascarenhas. ''Through his effort, he has obtained life-saving stents to help in excess of 200 patients.'' Mascarenhas, who has also shipped supplies to Croatia and Haiti, is director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg and practices at Easton Hospital in Wilson, St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill and Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg in Bethlehem. He understands the needs of India's hospitals because he trained at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Bombay. One of his responsibilities there was to collect all the used cardiac catheters and sterilize them for the next day's patients. ''We would reuse them until they virtually broke, but we had no choice really,'' Mascarenhas said. ''Unless you were in that place and worked in that situation, you don't know what it is like.'' When Mascarenhas began his fellowship at St. Vincent Hospital in Massachusetts in 1992, he started collecting used catheters again to sterilize and send to hospitals in Bombay. He continued sending medical supplies after joining Easton Hospital about eight years ago. ''People ask me what I do for my hobby. This is my hobby,'' said Mascarenhas, who also is helping raise money to open a cardiac care center near his hometown in Goa, India. Mascarenhas said the amount of supplies he sends has been increasing because more people, including funeral directors, are becoming aware of his mission. ''As long as the family gives us permission, we do it, especially for people who are cremated,'' said Bill Webb, a funeral director at Strunk Funeral Home in Easton. ''The pacemakers can't be cremated because they will destroy the retort.'' Kline Ashton of Ashton Funeral Home in Easton said the donation also provides some comfort to grieving families. ''It helps them in some small way to cope with their loss, and it gives them a small bit of hope for somebody else,'' Ashton said. ''It's just wonderful what does.'' Mascarenhas believes many more medical supplies that could be saving lives are being thrown away, but he can't collect them all himself. ''I'm hoping to talk to the association to make them aware that so much of this trash can be used as gold,'' Mascarenhas said. ''It would be nice if more and more people were in a more organized fashion sending stuff.'' ================================= Don’t forget – you saw it on GoaNet! WANT TO check out which mailing lists you could subscribe to? Send a blank email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================================================================
