School of Medicine clinical faculty and staff recently collected more than 1,500 medical textbooks to be donated to the Lui Hospital in the war zone of southern Sudan.
The Missouri Hospital Association made the request earlier this year, as the staff who work at Lui Hospital rely on outdated medical references, some dating back to the 1930s and ’40s.
Ivory Reed, director of facilities administration, said Kenneth Smith, custodian II, Brian Ryterski, facilities technician I, and Steve Smith, facilities supervisor/receiving/mail, gathered the books from various departments and took them to a room to be sorted.
James Crane, M.D., chief executive of the Faculty Practice Plan, and Laura Howard, executive assistant, worked about nine hours sorting and packing books. Of those collected, nearly 600 of the most appropriate books were packed into 46 boxes, which members of the facilities department loaded onto two skids.
Reed said Marc D. Smith, Ph.D., president of the Missouri Hospital Association, planned to come to St. Louis to pick up the books. But because of the large load of books, Reed and Leo Lewis, administrative assistant, offered to drive the books to Jefferson City April 18 in the School of Medicine’s mail truck, which can hold up to 1,600 pounds, he said.
Crane said the response was far greater than expected.
“We want to thank all those who contributed very usable medical literature and thank the facilities staff who transported hundreds of pounds of books to be sorted,” Crane said.
Books not used for the Lui Hospital will be sent to other charities and hospitals.