Area group collects used medical equipment for the needy

Assisted living beds, bedside commodes and folded-up walkers lean up against an old cross with a flame in a shed behind Maple United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau.

The cross with the flame symbol represents the Methodist faith. The medical equipment represents Bill Sparks' new program Help, which collects used medical equipment and assisted living devices and loans it out to people in need.

Sparks teaches a Sunday school class at Maple United Methodist. He and his class were looking for a project when he stumbled across a "Free for the Taking" advertisement in the Southeast Missourian giving away used hospital beds. Sparks, who after two back surgeries is down to only a cane for assistance, said he remembered leaving the hospital and paying $165 for a walker after insurance helped.

"That was one of the things that kind of opened my eyes," Sparks said. "I kind of have some empathy for that."

He called the number and reached Dan Huffman, maintenance, housekeeping and laundry supervisor at Jackson Manor.

Jackson Manor has been slowly replacing all the crank beds with electric ones. Huffman said he was happy to give them to Sparks once he heard about the Help program.

"Otherwise we were just going to haul them down to the dump and they would get crushed and buried in the ground," Huffman said.

Jackson Manor has replaced 11 beds so far. Some of the earlier ones went to individuals, but Huffman now calls Sparks every time they have extras.

"It's a wonderful deal," he said. "At least somebody's getting some use out of them."

According to Pat Huttegger, a member of the Maple United Methodist class that started Help and a retired home-health nurse, the beds help caregivers get patients up and moving around. They can also help people help themselves.

"You'd be appalled at how many patients who are discharged from the hospital and get home and can't get in and out of bed," Huttegger said.

She sterilizes the equipment before any of it is delivered.

"You can't take anything out of one place and just put it into another," she said.

Help has collected beds, walkers, canes and bathroom equipment from congregation members and community members as well as Jackson Manor. They partnered with Love INC to find people with a need for the equipment.

Their people are trained to ask the right questions to provide for people's needs, Sparks said.

So far, the program has only delivered one bed and a few canes and walkers. The shed behind Maple United Methodist is filling up, but Sparks still accepts equipment to be able to answer a call for Help.

charris@semissourian.com

388-3641