ESCANABA -- This fall, OSF St. Francis Hospital received a Rapid Infuser.
The $8,500 machine was donated by the Women of Philanthropy.
The machine can warm up either blood or fluid. It's effective in warming up hypothermic patients faster, like the ones who go through the ice in the winter.
Previously, nurses had to borrow the other rapid infuser from the operating room, if, it was available and if it wasn't, many times they had to manually squeeze the fluids into the victim.
"Well, we can take much better care of our trauma victims, our burn victims, and our hypothermic patients," said Emergency Room Department Manager, Evelyn Norkoli. "It just saves lives. So that's the big benefit. It's a life-saving piece of equipment that we got purchased for us."
The Rapid Infuser can give fluid in just 10 to 15 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes on a normal pump.
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