By Clark Judge, KAA.
(April 1, 2020) — With a change in protocol for all patients transported to state hospitals, the Killingworth Ambulance Association will need more protective masks … and on Wednesday it received them. Two-hundred-and-fifty, as a matter of fact, from an unlikely source.
A donor who requested anonymity.
A local health professional dropped off five unopened boxes of surgical face masks, each containing 50 items, and asked that they be delivered to the KAA. With Connecticut in a virtual lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said his business had slowed to the point where he wasn’t in immediate need of an abundance of masks.
So he wanted them in the hands of someone who is.
“I’m not seeing patients now,” he said, “and I have enough masks for the time being. You (EMTs with the Ambulance Association) need them because you’re called out every day. I’m just happy to help.”
It’s the second time in the past week the KAA has been the recipient of free protective equipment, with local resident Heidi Giaccone last week donating 10 R95 masks she found in the basement of her home.
The timing of the latest donation comes in the wake of a change in KAA protocol requiring all transported patients and techs to wear masks at all times when entering facilities. That, in turn, followed a directive from Middlesex EMS on Tuesday requiring all patients taken to the hospital or its satellite clinic to wear surgical masks regardless of symptoms or the reason for hospital visits.
The latest change, however, expanded the protocol to patients and EMTs to all facilities. That will require more masks, and the KAA now has them.
The surgical masks donated Wednesday are used on patients who meet the respiratory precaution protocol, whereas techs have been using … and will continue to use … N95 masks. However, now they are also required to wear surgical masks for non-respiratory precaution patients going to any hospital facility.
As sometimes happens, the latest donation came by chance. Keith Lyke, co-owner and pharmacy manager of the Killingworth Family Pharmacy, had been approached by the donor about a week ago, asking if he needed a supply of protective masks. Lyke told him he did not. He had just put in an order, he said, and would receive them soon. However, he promised to reach out to the Killingworth Ambulance Association and Killingworth Volunteer Fire Company to see if they could use them.
He did, and the rest you know.
“It definitely adds a sense of community,” said Lyke. “Everybody is willing to do what they can to help. But an individual who wants no recognition? That’s more than impressive. It’s admirable.”
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
