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Foundation Purchases Dialysis Chairs

DECEMBER 29, 2003: The Sheridan County Memorial Hospital Foundation announced today that it recently provided $2,600 for the purchase of four new specially designed chairs for the Dialysis Unit at Memorial Hospital of Sheridan County.

"Local dialysis patients spend three to four hours, three times a week at the hospital receiving dialysis treatment and these chairs have helped make them more comfortable during treatment," according to Ada Kirven, Foundation Coordinator.

"This fall a dialysis patient asked if there was some way the Foundation could help the Sheridan dialysis unit get new chairs because their chairs were old and uncomfortable. I told him I'd see what could be done. It turns out the Foundation had received memorial gifts that were specifically donated for the dialysis program, so we were able to help and very glad to do so," Kirven said.

Kirven added that the Foundation regularly receives funds donated in memory of others for a specific purpose such as the dialysis, diabetes and hospice programs. The funds are held in a restricted status until they are used for the purpose for which they were intended.

In 1995 Memorial Hospital partnered with the Deaconess Billings Clinic to create the Dialysis program in Sheridan which provides life sustaining therapy to area residents in need. People with kidney failure must have their blood "cleaned" three times per week. The Sheridan program has the capacity to care for twenty-four clients, and is currently serving 10. "If it were not available in Sheridan, these very special people would have to travel to Montana for their treatments or relocate to an area that could meet their health needs. The Sheridan and Johnson County dialysis recipients are very grateful that they can receive their treatment right here in Sheridan," Kirven said.

If you would like to find out more about the Sheridan County Memorial Hospital Foundation and its programs, or how to give a memorial gift or a gift in honor of a loved one to a special program, call Ada Kirven at 673-2417 or e-mail her at akirven@sheridanhospital.org.