Fundraiser For CT Scan In St. Stephen Reaches Goal

The Charlotte County Hospital in St. Stephen will be getting a CT scan much sooner than anyone expected.

Officials with the Charlotte County Hospital Foundation launched a $700,000 fundraising campaign in October.

They expected it would take two or three years to hit that goal. Instead, it happened in just two months.

A $350,000 donation announced Monday by the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation put them over the finish line.

“We now have enough money to buy a CT scan,” Steve Backman, president of the Charlotte County Hospital Foundation, said during Monday’s announcement.

Jamie Gallagher, president of the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, said the project was a “no-brainer” to support.

The foundation’s senior finance director, Sandra Clark, heard about the initiative in October during the ninth annual Charlotte FM Radiothon, which saw $262,000 raised in just 12 hours.

“We talked about it for maybe all of five or 10 minutes and said ‘yeah, that sounds like a really good project,'” said Gallagher.

“We’re always looking at how we can partner with different groups to make an impact and this is certainly one of those ways.”

Zach Kilburn, regional director of diagnostic imaging with the Horizon Health Network, said a CT scan will benefit Charlotte County residents in so many ways.

Those residents are currently forced to travel to Saint John if they need to have a CT scan performed.

“When we think about the distance to Saint John and that highway in the winter, this piece of equipment will be game-changing for the community, for the population, and for the health of all individuals in Charlotte County,” said Kilburn.

Backman said having a CT scan in St. Stephen will also help free up space at the hospitals in Saint John.

No word yet on when the new machine will be up and running at the Charlotte County Hospital.