{"id":411800,"date":"2025-11-29T01:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T01:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/411800\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T01:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T01:28:12","slug":"medical-bridges-sends-life%e2%80%91saving-equipment-to-100-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/411800\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Bridges sends life\u2011saving equipment to 100+ countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 Inside a bustling warehouse in Houston, volunteers move with the precision and speed of an automotive assembly line \u2014 but the parts they\u2019re packing are not engines or car doors. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re syringes, electro-surgical pens, heart monitors, hospital beds and X\u2011ray machines: the same devices that keep hospitals running in the U.S., repurposed to save lives in places where medical resources are painfully scarce.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years Medical Bridges has shipped roughly 500 tons of medical supplies and equipment donated by local hospitals and everyday people. Those donations have been inspected, tested and repaired by technicians and volunteers in Houston, then packed into shipping containers bound for some of the world\u2019s poorest and most crisis\u2011stricken nations. Today the organization serves more than 100 countries \u2014 from Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya to Haiti and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shipped last year 58 shipping containers of medical supplies and equipment,\u201d says Walter Ulrich, President & CEO of Medical Bridges. \u201cOn average, out of each one of those containers, doctors and nurses were able to do 40,000 treatments.\u201d Those are not abstract numbers \u2014 they represent bandages, births, surgeries and life\u2011saving interventions delivered to patients who otherwise would have little or no access to care.<\/p>\n

A mission born of practicality and compassion<\/b><\/p>\n

Medical Bridges began in 1997 when two Houston physicians, Dr. Patty Brock and Dr. Peggy Goetz, turned a simple idea into a global lifesaving movement: collect expensive medical equipment in the U.S. that is no longer being used and send it where it\u2019s desperately needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have unfortunately a medical system that creates a lot of waste, things that are brand new and unavailable in many places,\u201d Dr. Peggy Goetz said. \u201cAnd instead of restocking them, we just throw them away and that\u2019s wrong.\u201d The initiative redirects that waste back into care \u2014 transforming discarded or surplus equipment into functioning assets for hospitals and medical clinics lacking basic supplies.<\/p>\n

What they send ranges from small but essential items like syringes and surgical instruments to large, complex machines: patient monitors, operating\u2011room lights, X\u2011ray units, ultra-scan machines, mobility equipment and hospital beds. Medical Bridges inspects and tests everything, repairing devices so they will work reliably for clinicians abroad.<\/p>\n

Real impact in fragile places<\/b><\/p>\n

At the Centre Hospitalier de Pernier in Haiti, Medical Bridges\u2019 support helped build and equip a new maternity ward. The hospital has celebrated the births of more than 100 babies in the facility \u2014 many of whom likely would not have survived without all the birthing equipment sent by Medical Bridges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank Medical Bridges for their providential help they have been providing us, helping us,\u201d said Dr. Julien of the hospital, expressing gratitude on behalf of his staff and patients.<\/p>\n

In Ukraine, where more than 1900 hospitals and clinics have been damaged or destroyed during the conflict, Medical Bridges has delivered more than 425 tons of equipment since the war began. One pre-built-fully -outfitted-medical-clinic right now sits in front of a bombed\u2011out hospital just 30 miles from the border of Ukraine, treating wounded soldiers and civilians right now.<\/p>\n

Innovation and partnership: clinics in a box<\/b><\/p>\n

Beyond refurbished equipment, Medical Bridges partners with Texas A&M students and the student organization BUILD to convert cargo containers into fully built\u2011out, portable medical clinics. Hundreds of students help install flooring, cabinetry, fixtures and medical equipment, turning an empty steel box into a functioning facility ready to be deployed where there are no nearby hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we take an empty cargo container and we put in all of the flooring, cabinets, frames and everything to turn it into a fully functioning medical facility,\u201d explains Allyson Bartlett, CEO of BUILD, the Texas A&M student charity that leads the conversion effort.<\/p>\n

How you can help<\/b><\/p>\n

Medical Bridges\u2019 work depends on donations \u2014 not only of equipment but of time. There are three simple ways to get involved:<\/p>\n