TUBA CITY, Ariz. –On Tuesday, December 20, 2011, KARL STORZ, manufacturer of advanced medical equipment, announced it will donate a flexible intubation fiberscope worth almost $10,000 to Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation (TCRHCC).
About the width of a pencil, the flexible intubation fiberscope can be inserted through the nose or mouth into the windpipe and ultimately into the bronchi, the airway passages of the lungs. Once in the lungs, surgeons can then collect fluid samples that can later be sent for analysis. This procedure can help doctors properly diagnose and treat lung disease faster and assist in difficult intubations.
“The donated equipments enable TCRHCC to provide a greater range of services to our patients,” said Dr. Watkins, TCRHCC Deputy Anesthesiologist. “For those patients that do not breathe well, we can actually look inside their lungs see if there is an obstruction or infection and clean them out or diagnose certain conditions such as tumors or cancers.”
“This is going to be a wonderful piece of equipment that will expand our ability to take care of people,” said Dr. Watkins.
This is the second of STORZ’ donations to the hospital. In September the company donated it’s C-MAC® Video Laryngoscope, a device that helps surgeons and anesthesiologists complete necessary procedures in anesthesia, intensive care, and emergency medicine
“They have given us specialized equipment that we use to intubate patients, to help place breathing tubes in patients,” says Dr. John Watkins. “It’s a tool that we can use daily, and will save lives here in emergency situations.”
“KARL STORZ has been very generous in providing us with these high tech medical instruments.”
Dr. Watkins says the advanced medical equipment is also an incredible teaching tool.
The C-MAC Video Laryngoscope helps TCRHCC Anesthesiology Department the ability to train their very own nurses and medical residents that train at the Tuba City Hospital.
Dr. Watkins says the C-MAC Video Laryngoscope has helped to instruct young anesthesia providers in the technique of managing people’s airwave.
Dr. Watkins and the Anesthesiology Department have recently made TCRHCC a destination for student nurse anesthetists who train at the Tuba City Hospital. Under constant guidance with TCRHCC’s Primary Anesthesiologist Provider, TCRHCC now instructs a number of nurse anesthetists to become CRNA’s, Certified Registered Nurses Anesthetists.
The C-MAC is an integral part of the training under the supervision of the Anesthesiology provider.
“This is a wonderful thing KARL STORZ has done,” Dr. Alan Numkena stated, as President of the Navajo-Hopi Foundation.
KARL STORZ GmbH & Co KG is a private family-owned business, founded in 1945 in Germany. The company operates worldwide, with 49 subsidiaries in 38 countries, with more than 2,000 employees in the U.S. The U.S. subsidiary, KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America, Inc. was started in 1971.
The company has donated to numerous projects in underdeveloped countries around the world. This series of donations to Tuba City Hospital is its first such project in America.
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