Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Lennox and Addington County General Hospital is now armed with the latest in X-ray technology thanks to a $200,000 donation from the Anna and Edward Churchill Foundation.
Members of the Kingston-based organization were at LACGH last Wednesday to formally present the cheque and to get an up close look at what the money is going towards: a C-arm.
The mobile X-ray unit allows doctors to see an image in real time and capture images. It’ll serve as a useful tool to a wide variety of departments in the hospital.
“The nice thing about the way we’ve designed this room is the table is modular, the X-ray is modular, the screen is modular,” said Dr. Nick Gambarotta, a radiologist with LACGH. “So you can wheel this around any way you want. This machine will allow us to place PICC lines, which are intravenous lines for patients to receive treatments, hydration, nutrition and therapy. It’s not limited to that, there’s a lot more it can do.”
Aptly named, the unit resembles the letter ‘C’, with the actual X-ray unit at the very top. This allows doctors to position the unit anywhere over a patient to target a specific area.
The machine can be used to help guide radiologist when they perform joint injections into a patient’s shoulder or hip to help alleviate the chronic pain from ailments such as arthritis. Urologists will also benefit from it, as it can help them with endoscopy and other procedures. Doctors can also use it to get a better indication as to how patients are recovering following surgery.
“I think this is going to be a very important addition not only to this department, not only to the hospital, but really this community,” added Gambarotta. “It will help patients for the things that we offer here and not have to travel a distance to get what they need.”
The sizeable donation allowed the hospital to purchase the $260,000 machine right away, as apposed to having to seek donations from a variety of sources.
“The Churchill Foundation has three pillars,” said Tom Whightman, chair of the Churchill Foundation. “Health care, education and kids. Everything from the Napanee hospital fit from that perspective. Another contributing factor is (LACGH) is so well integrated with Kingston General Hospital. The Churchill Foundation was impressed with the fact that it raised money for KGH (during its first gala). We realized what a team player it is. All that factored into the donation.”