MCMH donates supplies to Ukraine

Eight western Iowa hospitals, including Montgomery County Memorial Hospital in Red Oak, are gathering and shipping medical supplies to the Ukraine to assist in humanitarian aid efforts.
The first shiment of supplies for the participating hospitals arrived at MCMH Friday, March 11. It will be picked up today and taken to O’Hare Airport in Chicago, flown to New York City, and transported to Europe, where it will trickle into the Ukraine to help refugees, first aid stations and hospitals. The supplies, the majority of them outdated, will get to the Ukraine through a 501c3, Nova Ukraine.
“Here are MCMH we are honored and humbled to help with this effort for the people of Ukraine. I am proud of my staff, and I’m grateful to the area hospitals for their tremendous effort stepping up to help coordinate gathering and shipping of the supplies,” said MCMH CEO Ron Kloewer.
Participating hospitals include MCMH, Audubon County Memorial Hospital, Crawford County Memorial Hospital, St. Anthony Regional Hospital, Cass Health, Myrtue Medical Center, Spencer Hospital and Shenandoah Medical Center.
“It’s heartbreaking what’s happening in the Ukraine. People want to help, and this is one way our hospitals in the Western Iowa Care System can help a really important cause,” said Barry Jacobsen, CEO Myrtue Medical Center, Harlan. “We have outdated supplies regularly we can no longer use, but they can be used in a setting like the Ukraine. I’m very impressed with what everyone has done.”
Red Oak resident, President of Northwest Consultants, and retired Major General Christopher P. Hughes and Kloewer are spearheading the project. Hughes explained that through his work, he has become familiar with Nova Ukraine. Nova Ukraine, a non-profit, helps the youth of the Ukraine connect with business in the United States to improve the quality of life for themselves and their country.
“As all of this manifested itself in December, because I do executive coaching for these companies and their workforce, I got to know quite a few Ukrainian youth. As the threat started to manifest itself, they started asking me for assistance,” said Hughes.
Hughes said he was also being asked for help from the President of Nova Ukraine. First, Hughes helped Nova Ukraine purchase triage kits and aid station kits. It has since progressed to medical supplies that are ‘outdated’ by medical standards but are still perfectly good to use.
“I called Ron and asked him to help me with this. He said ‘absolutely.’ He didn’t even hesitate,” Hughes said.
Kloewer then contacted his fellow western Iowa hospital CEOs and the project took off immediately. He also offered MCMH as the staging location for supplies headed to the Ukraine.
To donate toward helping those in the Ukraine, Hughes suggests going to give.novaukraine.org/.