Stuart Rotary Club donates much-needed paediatric equipment to Alice Springs Hospital

Stuart Rotary Club has made a lifesaving donation to the paediatric ward at the Alice Springs Hospital.

STUART Rotary Club has made a lifesaving donation to the paediatric ward at the Alice Springs Hospital.

Rotary last week handed over two Astodia diaphanoscopes to the hospital, which can be used to safely identify blood vessels in newborn babies. The donation is part of an ongoing community service to Alice Springs by the club, which has been operating for more than five decades.

Stuart Rotary Club volunteer and nurse Fran Neylon said the donation was for a worthy cause.

“We always like to do something locally, and the hospital obviously a broad range of people, and we try and service the hospital in many different ways,” she said.

From left: Sean Heenan, Sukoluhle Moya, Fran Neylon, Alina Iser, Craig Willingham. Picture: Supplied

“(The equipment) can be timesaving, less traumatic for the patient and also for the person during the cannulation.”

Ms Neylon, who’s been involved with the club for 12 years, said the Covid pandemic had made organising fundraising events more challenging than in the past.

“It is tricky with Covid, but we’re always trying to serve the community, given the resources that we’ve got, and that’s what Rotary is about.”