ROGERS, Ark. — A group of doctors who perform non-essential surgeries and services hasn’t been working, but they’re still doing their part to help. They are donating personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospitals, patients and community members.
Dr. Lizhen Gui is a pathologist at Northwest Arkansas Pathology and has been a member of the community for 15 years.
Since she’s been off of work, she's been spearheading efforts to get PPE to those that need it.
“We are fighting a war, an invisible war, and we don’t see our enemies but they are everywhere so, we’re fighting it," Dr. Gui said.
The Chinese Association of NWA, Chinese School and Grace Chinese Christian Church have managed to raise about $20,000 for its COVID-19 fund.
“We bought the masks from China and they are in small shipments that come in and then we collect them all together and distributed to hospitals, clinics," Dr. Gui said.
Highland Oncology Group is just one of the dozens of facilities that received a donation.
“A lot of our patients have cancer they can’t wait one or two or three months to postpone their treatment and this is a very at-risk population, and we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe," said Dr. Eric Schaefer, Oncologist at Highland Oncology Group.
Highland has ordered PPE but that shipment was delayed.
“Without these masks we would be at the point where we’d have to reuse masks and so we didn’t want to get there. We are very grateful for this donation," Dr. Schaefer said.
Additionally, the group is making cloth masks and providing meals to medical professionals working on the frontlines.
Their message: “we’re all in this together."
“We have to fight together. We have to unite and fight this unless we do that the virus will fight us right back," Dr. Gui said.
The groups have donated about 13,000 units of PPE and plan to donate even more in the coming days.