Raising money for lifesaving equipment at a time when its needed most, the 14th annual 800 CHAB Family First Radiothon is just under two weeks away.

Setting up at the Town N' Country Mall September 10 and 11, the radiothon has the daunting goal of raising $195,000 this year, which will all be donated to the Moose Jaw Health Foundation. With that money, the foundation hopes to purchase a new defibrillator and crash cart, chemotherapy chairs, and other items like cardiac monitors, a telemetry system, and a Holter monitor.

Respiratory therapist, Deign Salido.

"Our department is called the cardiopulmonary system department, so we are well integrated into the cardiac part of medicine. So those cardiac monitors are very crucial in our decision making and monitoring of patients, it helps us decide how we should treat that patient. Telemetry is more the cardio technicians, but it's a way to monitor patients' kind of outside of the department. It sends information to the main computer so they can monitor it. It's a better way to monitor them since they don't have to be hooked up."

"The Deliberator and crash cart is a very integral part of a code situation, which means a high trauma or cardiac arrest type situation. That equipment works to re-shock the heart. I always say it's a 'control alt delete' for the cardiac system. It helps restart that heart."

As it stands right now, the Dr. FH Wigmore Hospital does not have enough defibrillators to be on every floor of the hospital. The third floor does not have one, which means if it's needed, they need to transport one from another area of the hospital which can take 4-7 minutes.

The radiothon theme this year is "Health Care Heroes", bringing attention to those who have been on the front lines during the international pandemic. Salido talks a bit about how things have changed in his department since March.

"There's a tremendous amount of precautionary measures and we've been doing a lot of simulations. We are on the front lines, this is a respiratory disease, so it does heighten the alert for us, but I signed up to be a respiratory therapist. We're prepared and ready, we've been trained for a pandemic as well, it's part of our schooling."

Since the radiothon started in 2006, it has raised over $4.1 million for the local health foundation.