Riviera Nayarit, Mexico - For the last two years, Dianne Deboer and her family have lugged over-stuffed suitcases and brought extra suitcases on their vacation trips to their condo at Acqua Flamingos in Riviera Nayarit. It has nothing to do with packing for a week or two of sun and sand about every 4 months or so.

Ever since Deboer, an emergency room nurse at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Canada, was introduced to my wife and I, she has been toting down suitcases full of donated surplus medical supplies, giving them to me to make sure they go to the places that need them the most.

I've been a volunteer with Proteccion Civil for the municipality of Bahía de Banderas almost from the first day my wife and I moved from Texas to Bucerías six years ago. I am always looking for visitors to the area who are in EMS or fire service, so I can tell them that there is a need here for donations to the municipality's doctors, paramedics and firefighters.

When Deboer learned that the hospital department was replacing its heart monitors and EKG printers with newer models, she immediately requested that they be declared surplus, so she could bring them here.

Her request was approved. On each of Deboer's two recent vacation trips, she has brought a heart monitor/EKG printer. The monitor measures and indicates heart rhythm, pulse rate, blood pressure and blood oxygen level.

Said Deboer, "I was talking to one of my paramedic friends and he told me those monitors are very much in demand. He said they're worth $20,000 brand new and sell used for a minimum of $5,000 each. I had no idea. I guess we were pretty lucky to get them donated."

The first heart monitor was recently presented to Dr. Moy Cuevas, known as Doctor Moy or "the Sayulita Doctor," who has organized and is the primary instructor of a one-year course for 25 paramedics who will respond to medical emergencies in the Sayulita area.

A donated ambulance is expected to arrive from the US to help the paramedics make good use of the heart monitor while transporting patients to the hospital.

Dr. Moy and his wife, Paulina, also a doctor, are integral in training volunteer "first responders" for medical emergencies in Sayulita, because the municipality's ambulances have to travel such long distances when they are called out.

Deboer plans to transport 7 more heart monitors/printers, one at a time, by herself, other family members and friends, donating them to other EMS providers and the area's medical clinics and hospitals.

In the past, Deboer has donated splints, C-collars, gauze bandages, blood pressure cuffs, antiseptic wipes and other supplies sorely needed by municipal and state ambulance workers, but the heart monitors were an amazing donation!

The airline she uses to fly to Vallarta, Westjet, allows each passenger to bring one free extra suitcase containing humanitarian donations. So she encourages her hospital co-workers to help her make full use of the airline's generosity by finding surplus items for her to bring on her Mexican vacation trips.