Equipment to be a life saver

By Kath Gannaway
LIVES could very well be saved thanks to what Healesville Rotary Club president Greg Surh has described as a fantastic combined effort by the Yarra Valley community.
Rotary provided the five ambulances stationed at Healesville and Yarra Junction with Global Positioning Systems costing more than $1000 a piece after running a rock and roll fund-raiser in December.
Mr Surh said the fundraiser was an excellent example of community and business working together for the benefit of the valley community.
The dance raised close to $3000 with businesses throughout the Yarra Valley donating a huge cache of prizes for a raffle.
Warburton Golf Club contributed providing a venue and Rotary member and local AMP representative Laurie McDonald got AMP on board to match funds dollar for dollar.
“We found out that our ambulances didn’t have this very valuable and useful equipment where other ambulances did,” Mr Suhr explained, “and we set out to purchase two for Healesville.
“The fantastic response from everyone involved meant we were able to equip the three Healesville units and two from Yarra Junction.”
Paramedics Shane Edwards from Yarra Junction and Berni Harkins from Healesville were presented with the GPS equipment at Rotary’s Christmas dinner meeting in December.
Thanking the Rotary Club and in particular Laurie and Sika McDonald for their tremendous effort in the project, Ms Harkins said the equipment was a tremendously valuable addition to the fleet.
“This equipment could very well save lives,” she said explaining that it would help ambulances get to the correct address much more quickly.
Mr Edwards said it would also be valuable in directing the air ambulance with paramedics on the ground able to give the helicopter exact latitude and longitude details increasing safety for the helicopter crew and possibly saving critical minutes for the patient.
“It’s not the first time Rotary has helped us,” Mr Edwards said.
“They are a great asset to the Yarra Valley and I think sometimes people just don’t realise what a great job people like these Rotarians do.”