When University of Wisconsin junior J.D. Stier was preparing to go to Kenya last summer, he stopped by UW Hospital to pick up first-aid supplies for emergency situations.

However, once in the supply room, Stier found much more than he expected.

“We went into a basement that is the size of a city block,” he said.

The basement, Stier said, was filled with excess medical supplies bound for a landfill because the hospital had no room for them. Stier and his fellow travelers were encouraged to take as many supplies as they could carry on their trip.

Armed with a letter of authorization for customs, Stier said he and his companions had no problems toting the supplies to Kenyan hospitals. The only lament he expressed was that other students traveling abroad are unaware of this opportunity.

Robert Sheuer, director of materials management and distribution for UW Hospital, affirmed Stier’s story and said he often comes in contact with students in similar situations.

“We frequently get people coming through looking for obsolete medical supplies,” he said.

Scheuer noted that although the supplies, such as catheters, gauze and gloves, may be damaged or expired, they are still in usable condition for hospitals in need.

“When your choice is to use nothing or something that’s expired, you’ll take something expired,” he said.

Scheuer said only about half of the supplies get used. The others get shipped to a nearby landfill.

“I store as much as I can, but when it comes to the limit, I dispose of them,” he said.

Scheuer said this practice is not uncommon for hospitals around the country.

“There are some regional systems that collect outdated supplies, but nothing in the Midwest,” he said.

Dr. Doug Aretz, who practices medicine at St. Benedict’s Senior Community in St. Cloud, Minn., runs a program to send crateloads of used medical equipment to Dimitrov, Russia. Although there are many organizations similar to his across the United States, he said the majority of obsolete equipment goes to waste.

“There are a lot of efforts in our country that replicate what we do,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of that that goes on, but there is still a lot that gets thrown out. We’re a throw-away country.”

He said the federal government funds most of the costs of shipping for the program, now in its fifth year. Their cargo, mostly hospital beds, is driven from Edina, Minn. to a port on the East Coast, where it is shipped to Russia.

“I think the federal government facilitates a lot of these types of programs,” he said.

Aretz said the government and people like Stier are what makes programs like his possible.

“There are a lot of people willing to help out when they find out what is going on,” he said.

People on both sides seem to benefit from the process, Scheuer said.

“I’ve gotten of positive feedback from people saying it helped a lot of people,” Scheuer said.

Aretz said it was not until a trip to Russia that he truly understood the importance of the donations.

“It is extremely gratifying, especially when the patients thank us,” Aretz said. “We went to a hospital, and the patients recognized that we gave them the beds they were laying on.”

Both Scheuer and Aretz agreed that although their systems aren’t perfect, they are better than nothing.

“I’m trying to make the best use of what we have,” Scheuer said.