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Bronson Children’s Hospital unveils new kid-friendly ambulance

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BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Bronson Children's Hospital unveiled a new kind of ambulance. One that’s all white, with flowers on the outside and a sky-painted roof on the inside.

“We are so excited to ride in this and to use this to take care of the kids in our community.” said Becky Peariso, secondary pediatric transport nurse with Bronson Hospitals. “We are a two-nurse respiratory transport team. So we’re excited to have the specialized equipment that comes inside.”

Bronson unveiled a new kid-friendly ambulance that’ll be used mainly to transport children within their nineteen-hospital system. Inside, it's stocked with kid-sized medical equipment like small blood-pressure cuffs, IVs, and breathing tubes.

“Every parent is going to be excited to know that there’s a dedicated team [and] dedicated vehicle to transport their ill child to the best place to receive care,” said Peariso.

Heather Ostrike with the Bronson Health Foundation said getting the ambulance has been two years in the making. It costs about $300,000 and it was funded completely by donations from the community. It'll be up and operational later next month.

“Certainly our first concern is to make sure that we’re treating our pedriatic patients to the best of our ability,” said Ostrike. “But it’s also really important that we create a safe environment but a friendly environment.”

Ostrike said the ambulance is the first of it’s kind in southwest Michigan and will service all nine counties in the area. It’s created to care for young patients, from infancy to age 18, and to help them to feel at safe while in their care.

“Having a pediatric ambulance is going to make our pediatric patients feel more at ease,” said Ostrike. “Having clouds on the sky, having a specialized transport team, transport-nurse, it’s so important. It’s definitely critical to what we do.”