TB Vets supports new equipment for East Kootenay HART
April 17, 2025
The East Kootenay Foundation for Health is excited to announce the purchase of a new T1 Ventilator for the East Kootenay Health Region High Acuity Response Team (HART). This purchase was made possible by a $40,000 respiratory care grant from the TB Vets Charitable Foundation.
HART is made up of Critical Care nurses and Respiratory Therapists is based out of EKRH. This team works in partnership with BC Ambulance Service to bring critical care support to rural hospitals, and when necessary, transport patients to a higher level of care. When HART is not supporting critical care at a rural site, they are actively working at EKRH providing many functions including trauma team support, Emergency, Intensive Care, Pediatric, and critical care nursing. The new ventilator will improve the HART team’s ability to provide rural site care and transfer critical care patients who need mechanical ventilation within the East Kootenay.
TB Vets was founded as an initiative to provide employment to WWII Veterans suffering from tuberculosis. They are now a leading charitable foundation supporting the frontlines of respiratory care in British Columbia and beyond. Every year TB Vets Charitable Foundation funds approximately 20 ventilators, provides bursaries to respiratory therapy students, contributes to lung research, and continues to support isolated tuberculosis patients at Vancouver General Hospital’s TB Ward.
In the last 20 years, they have assisted EKFH with the purchase of over $200,000 of life saving respiratory care equipment for hospitals across the East Kootenay. On behalf of EKFH Executive Director Brenna Hong, “we are so thankful for the partnership that we have with TB Vets and the funding they provide for life saving equipment for our hospitals in the East Kootenay. We are also very proud to help out the HART Team as they are instrumental to saving lives.”
To learn more about the TB Vets key tag program and other ways they support respiratory health care across the region and throughout BC, visit tbvets.org.