Day 2:
The team arrived at Hospital General De Cholula this morning to prepare for the weeks surgeries and conduct triage. The hospital is a beautiful brand-new facility that opened in just November of last year. We had a warm welcome from the local medical staff and after a short meeting, jumped strait into business.
The team headed down to a designated area of the hospital to meet with the potential patients. The energy was high and we were surrounded by people who traveled near and far for the opportunity to be helped by Austin Smiles. With Dr. Cullington and Dr. Teichgraeber (Dr.T) leading up triage, we identified the first 25 patients to undergo medical treatment starting Monday. The local medical staff did a great job identifying candidates for us to operate on, with the first round of 25 patients consisting of seven palate repairs and the remaining, cleft lip. The patients primarily consisted of infants and young children.
Special shout-out to our team member, Tom Kirk, who did an amazing job making the families and children feel welcomed and loved. With a teddy-bear-puppet in hand, Tom put a smile on everyone’s faces.
We’ll be including photos of the trip and sharing our blog via social media. The “official” hashtag of the trip is #smilepuebla14 and so feel free to message us via Facebook & Twitter if there is anything specific you’d like to hear about!
AUSTIN SMILES
