Family’s Christmas present is a donation to hospital

Accepting the donation from Stan and Betty Hastings and family is Anna Marie Ferguson, executive director of the PECMH Foundation. Help decorate the QHC Picton tree with pink and blue ribbons in support of moms and  babies. Everybody is invited to attend a tree lighting ceremony at the front of the hospital on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m.

Betty and Stan Hastings, together with  family members Kevin and Jennifer Lavers and Kim and Darcy Mulrooney, donated $500 to the Hospital Foundation in an ongoing bid to reduce Christmas present spending and contribute to the community instead. The Hastings’ note that over the past four years, the new tradition has become a rewarding and eye opening experience as they have become more aware of those in need around them.

Their donation will be directed toward the purchase of two fetal monitors for Picton Hospital.  Prince Edward County Memorial is a small rural hospital that prides itself on the ability to offer a wide variety of services, including the option of low risk pregnant women being able to deliver in their own home town with their own family physician.

A valuable piece of equipment required to monitor the well being of the baby is a fetal monitor that allows the nurse or doctor to monitor both the progress of labour (as it can record the contraction pattern) alongside the baby’s heart sounds to help to ensure its wellbeing.
The monitor allows staff to read and interpret how the baby is tolerating the labour process by attaching belts to the mom’s abdomen.  An additional future ability with a new fetal monitor is to have all the monitors the same within the corporation’s four hospitals with a computer type component that will allow staff in another hospital to read a monitor strip from Picton if a concern arises and a consultation with an obstetrician is required.

Help decorate the QHC Picton tree with pink and blue ribbons in support of moms and their newborn babies. Everybody is invited to attend a tree lighting ceremony at the front of the hospital on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m.