ASCP Foundation Provides Essential Medical Supplies to Italian Hospital Battling COVID-19

Patients in the small northern Italian town of Chiari are receiving life-saving care thanks to the support of the ASCP Foundation. Chiari, a comune located in the Italian region of Lombardy, has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Augusto Pellegrini of the Fondazione Pellegrini Forlivesi reached out to ASCP CEO E. Blair Holladay, PhD, MASCP, SCT(ASCP)CM, requesting support as the scale of the outbreak became apparent. The Pellegrini Forlivesi Foundation provides support to the local hospital in Chiari, which was seeing essential medical supplies dwindle. The hospital has seen a surge of patients seeking treatment for COVID-19 from the surrounding communities and is now treating over 275 patients.

Staff from the ASCP Center for Global Health identified U.S.-based suppliers of continuous positive airway pressure masks and were able to procure and export them to Chiari within 6 days time. Supportive care for respiration is of the utmost importance, particularly for elderly patients. According to Gabrielle Zanolini, Chief of Medicine at the local hospital in Chiari, this equipment supports patient respiration and helps patients avoid intensive care. According to Jean Pierre Ramponi, health director of the hospital, 35 patients are already using the supplies in the treatment ward. An additional 18 masks were sent in a second shipment that was delivered on March 23.