DRE Donates Medical Supplies to Non-Profit Tubie Friends

DRE’s products provide care to people and pets from all walks of life. But when Tubie Friends reached out to OR Supply’s Casie Gresham, it was time for DRE to help another kind of creature.

Tubie Friends is a non-profit organization that provides children receiving feeding tubes with a free stuffed friend in order to make the process less frightening. Casie knew DRE could help.

"Here in OR Supply, we have tons of vendors who send us samples," Casie said. "So I started collecting, and not only sales reps helped out, but several biomeds had supplies they donated, the receiving department donated and the administrative assistants donated."

All in all, Casie collected blood pressure cuffs, cannulas, electrodes, SPO2 probes, anesthesia masks and tubing for Tubie Friends.

Tubie Friends has mailed out over one thousand stuffed animals to families of children who use feeding tubes. The Tubie Friend can be used to educate children before their surgery about what is to come and ease fear, or to give a sense post-surgery of having a similarity with a friend. The animals are customized as close as possible to the child’s medical interventions.

Co-founder Shannon Gonsalves keeps Tubie Friends close to her heart because her son uses a feeding tube.

"It has been a positive way to focus our attention and teach our kids to focus on positive works versus the struggles that we are currently facing," Shannon said. "It has been very fulfilling to give back to others when we have both been recipients of various community assistance programs/grants. We can’t afford to donate funds to organizations so we donate time instead."

Casie said she received many support e-mails from DRE staff about Tubie Friends.

"I had so many supportive e-mails from staff saying this was a great idea, so it’s nice to have a support system," Casie said. "I hope we can help Tubie Friends out in the future."

Tubie Friends is always accepting tax-deductable donations to customize the bears. Commonly used supplies that are always needed are: nasal cannulas, trachs, trach ties, NG tubes, slip tip syringes, PICC line supplies, Central Line extensions, Port Needle kits and NG tube stickers, to name a few.

"We’ve had so many comments from non-medical families about how they never knew this or that about tube feeding until we started Tubie Friends," Shannon said. "It is creating an awareness for people with feeding tubes."