BRAVO and Kiwanis seek to lessen the pain for child trauma patients
The smiling face of the soft stuffed bear pokes out from a side pocket of the red bag. It is one of the first things a child will see when being loaded into a BRAVO ambulance, and hopefully will be the only thing he or she will focus on during the ordeal.
The stuffed bear is part of a pediatric trauma kit that has been donated to the BRAVO volunteer ambulance service by the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center (KPTC) at North Shore University Hospital, thanks in part to a donation from Brooklyn-based ASHORE Inc, which donates money to health-related causes in memory of Arline Shahmanesh, who passed away over a decade ago from Hodgkin’s Disease.
For 39 years, BRAVO’s volunteer ambulance services have served the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights in countless emergencies, with residents of all ages receiving top-notch emergency care on the way to the hospital—and all for free, thanks to donations from community members.