Donations & Fundraising

$43,800 RAPID INFUSER APPEAL UNDERWAY

We’re now raising money for a piece of lifesaving equipment called a Rapid Infuser. Used to rapidly deliver high volumes of warmed blood and fluids to replace blood lost from traumas such as car and farm accidents, a Rapid Infuser enables our theatre clinicians to do their very best work.

The Austin 7 Club made the first donation to this appeal ($11,000) on April 14. Warrnambool’s Barry Lynch is the most recent donor having gifted $20,000 on May 13. We now only need to raise another $12,360 to reach our target. As June 30 looms you might like to make an end-of-financial-year tax deductible donation to this cause? To do so, please contact appeal manager Suzan Morey on 5564 4100 or smorey@swh.net.au

ART SHOW RETURNS

The return of our Camperdown & District Hospital Auxiliary’s Spring Catalogue art show has been welcomed with gusto. Close to 150 people attended the weekend affair following a pandemic-induced two-year hiatus.

Auxiliary president Ian Currell says he’s rapt with the outcome of this year’s event with Korumburra art dealer Doug Kane. And with good reason. Of the art on show, 40% was sold. Far more than the usual 12–15% that trades hands at dealer-related shows like this.

The profits from tickets to opening night and the two-day exhibition, a 15% commission from the sold art and 100% of the takings of two art-dealer-donated auction pieces will all add up to yet another sizeable donation for new medical equipment and aides for our Camperdown Hospital. This year already, the auxiliary has generously financed the purchasing of bedside drawers ($1,536), recliner chairs ($8,950), patients’ cabinets ($1,850) and an $8,500 linear transducer. AND it’s about to pay $43,861 for a soon-to-arrive CTG machine/foetal monitor. What a wonderful effort.

TWO NEW PIECES OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT ON THEIR WAY THANKS TO THE 2022 MURAY2MOYNE 

Having more than met their fundraising targets, our 2022 Murray2Moyne (M2M) Cycle Relay teams have returned home victorious.

Scrubbers & The Gasman cycled 384 kilometres from Echuca to Port Fairy to raise the $8,663 we need for a new ECG machine for our Warrnambool Theatres and Warrnambool College cycled the 520-kilometre Mildura to Port Fairy leg to raise the $2,160 we need for a first-ever transilluminator for the paediatric treatment room in our Emergency Department.

Additionally, three individuals received utterly-deserved accolades at the ride’s closing ceremony: Warrnambool College support crew members David Castles and Neville Drake were presented with certificates of recognition and the Scrubber’s Graeme Burchell was named a finalist for the 2022 Graham Woodrup Memorial Award.

Both teams are now making plans for next year’s ride. Should you wish to support either of them in their fundraising endeavours leading up to this April 2023 event you can contact our community partnerships manager Suzan Morey at smorey@swh.net.au or on (03) 5564 4100.

PHOTO: M2M Warrnambool College manager Lester Campbell (from left) and Scrubbers & The Gasman manager Barry Pike are rapt with the results of this year‘s event: 904 kilometres ridden + 3 members honoured + $10,823 raised.

RUMI ROCKS!

She’s only nine-and-a-half months old and already making the world a better place to be. Rumi O’Brien is the reason 21 local families will be spared the $96 cost of the hip dysplasia harness their newborn will need – just as she did, last year.

Commonly, this harness is worn for around three months to help treat dysplastic, subluxed or dislocated hips caused by the underdevelopment of hip joints. South West Healthcare (SWH) paediatrician Dr Christian Fiedler treats 10–15 children in this situation every year.

Heidi and Lachlan O’Brien say they knew very little about hip dysplasia before Rumi was diagnosed. Inspired by the medical care and compassion provided by Dr Fiedler and his team and acutely aware that, unlike them, some families would struggle to pay for the harness, the O’Briens decided to give back in Rumi’s name. Last November, Hike for Hips happened – a fundraising event where participants were sponsored to walk 50 kilometres over 30 days. This resulted in the raising of more than $2,000, and in the subsequent delivery this week of 21 Pavlik harnesses to Dr Fiedler’s clinic.

‘This donation is a very kind and warm-hearted action that will help families cover the cost of the treatment,’ says Dr Fiedler, pictured with the O’Briens.

The O’Briens are now planning their 2022 Hike for Hips fundraiser, Heidi’s working on producing a hip dysplasia information brochure for parents, and she and Lachlan continue to donate a percentage of their littleroo.thelabel proceeds to the cause, as well.

$51,785 DONATION FOR SHORT STAY UNIT 

Our Short Stay Unit’s first fleet of spot monitors (and two new vital signs monitors) are given a clean bill of health by our Biomedical Engineering team (from left: Sam Jenkins, Shaun Knell, Mick Lumsdon, Dr Geoff Ward and Val Santos) whose job it is to safety-check new medical equipment before it goes out on to the floors of our two hospitals.

Worth $51,785, this new equipment is some of the $403,000 of donor-funded purchases we’ve been able to make so far this financial year.

For a second year running the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted on the fundraising hopes of the many community groups that work tirelessly to organise and run events to support our medical equipment, services initiatives and research needs. Almost every event planned for 2020-21 had to be cancelled although we were thrilled the 2021 Murray to Moyne (M2M) Cycle Relay got to go ahead between lockdowns. This allowed our Warrnambool College M2M team to commence fundraising for a distraction therapy entertainment system for children in our paediatrics unit, and for our SWH Scrubbers and The Gasman team to commence fundraising for an ECG machine for our Warrnambool theatres.

The undeniable value and power of bequests has been highlighted during the pandemic. Of the $1,342,000 we raised in the past 12 months, $982,251 came via the lasting legacies of people who had intentionally decided to make a difference upon their passing. Bequests were received from the late Cecil Boyle, Jeanette Buck, John Gordon, Robert McConnell, George Pethard, Ron Rauert and Wendy Smith. Additionally, families and friends gifted $5,795 in memory of Helen Goss, Lynda Kenna, Shaun Mather and Margaret Snaauw.

Of the vital medical equipment our donors allowed us to purchase this year, a key piece was a $278,000 telemetry and monitoring upgrade of our two hospitals. This investment now allows us to provide telemetry/monitoring to patients in our short stay unit, expands our coverage of the Warrnambool Base Hospital’s telemetry system, and builds capacity at our Camperdown Hospital. In addition, the new software allows our current paging system to be augmented to provide patient data to caregivers – anywhere and anytime – via smartphones and tablets to better support informed clinical decisions and improved care coordination.

Medical equipment financed in 2020-21 by the generosity of donors included: