Hospital beds that once comforted Rogue Valley residents will soon give rest to people on the other side of the world.

Providence Medford Medical Center has donated 50 used hospital beds to a hospital in Nepal, the tiny Himalayan nation sandwiched between India and China. Volunteers from Medford’s Seventh-day Adventist Church loaded the beds and other donated medical equipment into a shipping container Tuesday, the first step in a long journey that will end in a little town called Banepa, just down the road from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

Steve Cool of Medford collected the materials for Scheer Memorial Hospital, which is supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Cool, 47, a member of the Medford Seventh-day Adventist Church, learned about the Adventist hospital in Nepal during a medical mission to India in 2003.

He started collecting supplies for the Adventist hospitals in India. That plan faltered over legal complications about bringing medical supplies to India. The church’s hospital in Nepal, however, jumped at the chance for the beds, bedside tables and desks.

"The beds they have now look like they’re from the 1930s or ’40s," said Cool, who works as the technical director for Oregon Advanced Imaging.

Advertisement

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia, but its spectacular scenery and friendly people have made it a popular tourist destination for Western travelers since the 1960s. Visitors come to climb the mountains and hike the scenic footpaths that are the only travel routes between mountain villages.

An armed rebellion that sprang up several years ago has sharply reduced the tourist trade, which has been one of Nepal’s principal sources of foreign exchange. The country’s geographic isolation has hampered industrial development, and most Nepalis still live in small villages, where medical care is scarce or nonexistent.

Cool also asked colleagues in the local medical community for equipment and supplies. His collection of new and used equipment, including X-ray gear and patient monitors from Rogue Valley Medical Center, was more than a 40-foot shipping container could hold.

"It’s amazing what comes when you ask," Cool said.

"When you tell people what you’re doing, they start emptying their pockets."

Several members of the Medford Adventist church will join Cool on a trip to Nepal to unload and set up the equipment when it arrives.

"Steve got all this stuff donated," said Rory Wold of Medford as he helped load beds and mattresses into the shipping container. "The least I could do was go along and help unload it."

Reach reporter Bill Kettlerat 776-4492, or e-mail bkettler@mailtribune.com