Club donates stair chair to ambulance corps

Mehmet Barzev, center, representing West End Community Ambulance, accepts a nearly $3,000 donation from West End Rotary Club President Kevin Noll, left, and the club’s Foundation Chair Honi Gruenberg.

A donation from the West End Rotary Club is helping the sick and injured get out of tight places.

To help it maneuver patients in confined spaces, West End Community Ambulance is purchasing stair chairs that help responders safely navigate homes that cannot accommodate a stretcher.

“West End Community Ambulance responds to more than 3,000 calls a year,” said Honi Gruenberg, the club’s foundation chair. “They have four Stair-PRO chairs but need two more so they will have a chair for every ambulance."

The Rotary donation of $2,976 will enable the EMS organization to equip a fifth ambulance with that piece of equipment. Gruenberg helped secure club funds and a grant from Rotary District 7410 to purchase the chair.

The Stair-PRO chair uses bulldozer-type tracks to safely glide over stairs. It can accommodate patients weighing up to 500 pounds in narrow passageways, stairs or basements where a stretcher is unable to reach.

Patients aren’t the only ones who will benefit from the donation, said Mehmet Barzev of the ambulance organization. “The Stair-PRO uses the conventional chair design with the addition of bulldozer tracks to transfer the weight of the patient to the stairs, rather than to the back of the rescuers moving the patient. This is important to EMS personnel because the majority of EMS-related injuries are due to lifting and moving patients. There are few times a responder is more vulnerable than when traversing stairs.

“When used properly,” he added, “this device can revolutionize how EMS gets patients from their homes, with minimal risk to the patient and to those moving the patient.”

West End Rotary is a service club that meets for breakfast most Thursdays at 7:30 a.m. in the Western Pocono Community Library. The public is invited to attend.