SEQUIM — A $38,000 donation from the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild will help Clallam County Fire District 3 pay for a device used on nearly every aid call it goes on in the Sequim area, paramedics say.
Guild leaders presented the $38,000 donation on Thursday at Station 34 on North Fifth Avenue to help the district, which covers the east side of Clallam County and a small portion in Jefferson County, purchase a new ZOLL X Series monitor/defibrillator.
Capt. Kolby Konopaski, medical safety officer, said the donation will replace one older monitor at either Blyn or Carlsborg stations, and the district will pay for the other to bring the total to nine current models across the district.
Once attached via stickers and wire to a patient’s ankle, wrist and heart, firefighter/paramedic Mark Karjalainen said the device can tell paramedics where a cardiac event is happening in the person’s body, and paramedics can forward that information along to a doctor at a hospital during the patient’s transport.
“It’s an amazing help to us determining needs in the field,” Karjalainen said.
All the district’s paramedics are trained on the monitor with about five on per shift across the different stations, Konopaski said.
“The algorithms in it to read an EKG (electrocardiogram) will confirm what medics suspect,” he said. “It’s an essential life diagnostic equipment.”
Paramedics drive up to three times a week to St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton to transport patients for cardiac care, Konopaski said.
With the long drive there, he said, the monitor has a “clot buster” that “helps buy us more time.”
Guild gives
Similar to past donations, funds come from efforts of the guild’s all-volunteer Thrift Shop at 204 W. Bell St. in Sequim.
Guild president Nancy McGovern said sales during the pandemic have done well; the shop closed only twice in the past two years.
“We love the volunteers, donors and customers,” she said.
Funds support the fire district, Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic (Sequim Free Clinic), nursing scholarships at Peninsula College and other community health agencies.
In its history, the guild has given more than $2.3 million to these groups.
McGovern and others said they volunteer because they enjoy the work.
“It’s a worthy cause,” she said.
So far, 11 new volunteers have signed up with more welcome, she said.
After a three-year hiatus, guild leaders plan to bring back their spring fundraiser in May 2023 with a silent and live auction.
The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday on the first and third week of each month. Donations are accepted from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays.
For more about volunteering, consigning and/or donating at the shop, call 360-683-7044 or search for the shop’s page on Facebook under “Thrift Shop Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild.”
