Haiti Devices and Supplies Relief: Vidacare Corporation Donates EZ-IO Vascular Access Systems to Partners In Health for Haiti Relief Efforts

Press release repinted from www.vidacare.com - January 21, 2010

EZ-IO System Helps Gain Essential Vascular Access in Critically Injured Patients

(SAN ANTONIO) – Vidacare Corporation has joined forces with Partners In Health (PIH) to provide vital medical supplies in Haiti following the devastating earthquake which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.  Vidacare Corporation is donating over $50,000 worth of equipment to help gain vascular access in earthquake survivors at PIH clinics and operating rooms around Haiti. An initial shipment of drivers and needles has already been sent to meet PIH’s request for medical supplies, and additional shipments are eminent.

The EZ-IO® Vascular Access System provides immediate vascular access using the intraosseous (inside the bone) space and is particularly valuable in dehydrated patients or patients with traumatic/blunt force injuries in whom essential vascular access could be difficult or impossible to establish.  The EZ-IO is recognized as the technology standard for intraosseous (IO) access and has been inserted in over 350,000 patients worldwide. The EZ-IO system is part of the medical equipment inventory of approximately 60 percent of US advanced life support ambulances and supplied to over 50 percent of US hospital emergency departments.  It is also used by the US military healthcare providers.  

“Vidacare is committed to using its lifesaving technology platform to aid persons in need of vascular access on a global scale.  This disaster affects us all, and it is our corporate duty to help,” said Phil Faris, CEO of Vidacare Corporation. 

Established in 2001, Vidacare Corporation is the developer of a broad technology platform that is defining the new field of intraosseous (inside the bone) medicine, with the potential to establish new standards of clinical excellence in the safe, rapid performance of medical procedures using the intraosseous space. Current applications include vascular access, emergency and disaster medicine, oncology, spinal surgery applications and regenerative medicine. Vidacare’s focus on enhancing clinical efficacy, patient safety and comfort, and reducing complications and their associated costs, has resulted in its devices becoming the recognized technology standard in their respective clinical fields. Privately held, the company is based in San Antonio, Texas, and its products are marketed in over 50 countries worldwide.  www.vidacare.com

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Is your company donating medical devices, supplies or other assistance to help the earthquake victims Haiti?

If so, Medical Devices Today would like to hear about it. Please send publication-ready press releases about what your company is doing to Sean Smith at [email protected].

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