A blood pressure monitor is a relatively simple piece of medical equipment. Yet it can offer crucial health information when someone isnt feeling well. After an incident at the YMCA with an ill member, Midelfort Pharmacy & Home Medical recently donated two monitors — one to the downtown Eau Claire YMCA and one to the YMCA Camp Manitou in New Auburn. The donations came about after a February incident when YMCA patron Chris Bertrang of Eau Claire was feeling ill. Bertrang has a mitochondrial disorder. YMCA staff members Carmen Peterson and Anne Thill were helping Bertrang when another YMCA patron, Whitney Peters, came upon them. Peters recalls saying, Im a nurse. What can I do? Peters, a registered nurse at Luther Midelfort, was surprised to learn the YMCA did not have a blood pressure monitor. It could have ended there, but Peters asked, and Midelfort Pharmacy & Home Medical — one of the Ys downtown neighbors — agreed to donate the two monitors. Carmen Peterson expressed thanks from the YMCA. Whitney was there when we needed her, and these blood pressure monitors will help members and campers.
