THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512200158
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER C. O'DONNELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
Salli Chamberlin may not have donned a red suit and white beard this season, but she knows what it's like to play Santa.
Thanks to Chamberlin, the Regional Diagnostic Center in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, will receive several boxes of much-needed hospital supplies donated by Chesapeake General Hospital. In keeping with the season, the packages are expected to arrive - when else? - on Christmas Eve.
Chamberlin encountered the hospital last summer while accompanying her husband Daniel on his own volunteer mission.
``Daniel was sent to the Ukraine for seven weeks with the International Executive Service Corps, a volunteer program associated with the State Department. I decided to go along,'' said Chamberlin.
While Daniel Chamberlin was teaching a course on business management at the Ukraine School of Mining, Salli Chamberlin decided to investigate the city's hospital.
``I asked them for a tour,'' she said. ``I expected it to last just a few minutes, but it ended up taking most of the day.''
For Chamberlin, the tour dismissed some myths about hospitals in the former Soviet Union.
``It was very clean and very neat and the attitude of the staff members was upbeat,'' said Chamberlin. ``But their equipment was so old, in some cases 20 or 30 years old. Still, when you think about it, they've done very well considering they were under communism for 70 years.''
Although Chamberlin was happy to see that the hospital wasn't the bleak institution she expected to find, she did notice that the supply closets were bare.
``They had many big equipment items but couldn't use them because they ran out of catheters or other small pieces that made them work,'' said Chamberlin. ``It was so sad.''
So Chamberlin decided to get involved.
Before leaving the Ukraine, she asked the doctors at the hospital for a list of some of the items they needed. Once back in Chesapeake, she presented the list to officials of Chesapeake General Hospital.
``I've volunteered at the hospital for five years as a patient visitor,'' said Chamberlin. ``I knew the staff would want to help.''
Once back in Hampton Roads, Chamberlin requested a meeting with Donald S. Buckley, president of the hospital.
``When I went into the meeting, there sat a table full of hospital officers,'' Chamberlin said. ``I told them what I had found in the Ukraine and gave them the list of supplies.''
Within a week Chamberlin got a call from Harry Munari, a hospital vice president.
``He said they had the catheters and that they would be shipped out to the Ukraine,'' she said. ``The hospital has just turned things inside out to help.''
In addition to the needed catheters, members of the hospital staff threw medical magazines, teddy bears and crayons in the boxes before they were shipped to the Ukraine.
``All in all, we sent about $16,000 worth of goods,'' said Anita Phipps, director of materials management who added that the catheters were donated by Arrow International, a medical supply company in Pennsylvania.
With her trip to the Ukraine behind her, Chamberlin is concentrating on her work as a patient visitor with the hospital.
``It's one of those jobs where you get more than you give,'' said Chamberlin.
Salli Chamberlin may not have donned a red suit and white beard this season, but she knows what it's like to play Santa.
Thanks to Chamberlin, the Regional Diagnostic Center in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, will receive several boxes of much-needed hospital supplies donated by Chesapeake General Hospital. In keeping with the season, the packages are expected to arrive - when else? - on Christmas Eve.
Chamberlin encountered the hospital last summer while accompanying her husband Daniel on his own volunteer mission.
``Daniel was sent to the Ukraine for seven weeks with the International Executive Service Corps, a volunteer program associated with the State Department. I decided to go along,'' said Chamberlin.
While Daniel Chamberlin was teaching a course on business management at the Ukraine School of Mining, Salli Chamberlin decided to investigate the city's hospital.
``I asked them for a tour,'' she said. ``I expected it to last just a few minutes, but it ended up taking most of the day.''
For Chamberlin, the tour dispelled some myths about hospitals in the former Soviet Union.
``It was very clean and very neat and the attitude of the staff members was upbeat,'' said Chamberlin. ``But their equipment was so old, in some cases 20 or 30 years old. Still, when you think about it, they've done very well considering they were under communism for 70 years.''
Although Chamberlin was happy to see that the hospital wasn't the bleak institution she expected to find, she did notice that the supply closets were bare.
``They had many big equipment items but couldn't use them because they ran out of catheters or other small pieces that made them work,'' said Chamberlin. ``It was so sad.''
So Chamberlin decided to get involved.
Before leaving the Ukraine, she asked the doctors at the hospital for a list of some of the items they needed. Once back in Chesapeake, she presented the list to officials of Chesapeake General Hospital.
``I've volunteered at the hospital for five years as a patient visitor,'' said Chamberlin. ``I knew the staff would want to help.''
Once back in Hampton Roads, Chamberlin requested a meeting with Donald S. Buckley, president of the hospital.
``When I went into the meeting, there sat a table full of hospital officers,'' Chamberlin said. ``I told them what I had found in the Ukraine and gave them the list of supplies.''
Within a week Chamberlin got a call from Harry Munari, a hospital vice president.
``He said they had the catheters and that they would be shipped out to the Ukraine,'' she said. ``The hospital has just turned things inside out to help.''
In addition to the needed catheters, members of the hospital staff threw medical magazines, teddy bears and crayons in the boxes before they were shipped to the Ukraine.
``All in all, we sent about $16,000 worth of goods,'' said Anita Phipps, director of materials management who added that the catheters were donated by Arrow International, a medical supply company in Pennsylvania.
With her trip to the Ukraine behind her, Chamberlin is concentrating on her work as a patient visitor with the hospital.
``It's one of those jobs where you get more than you give,'' Chamberlin said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Thanks to Salli Chamberlin, several boxes of much-needed hospital
supplies are headed to the Ukraine.
by CNB