What a day!
The first team arrived at the hospital around 6:30 AM Monday morning for the first day of surgeries. After some searching we were able to round up the eight patients scheduled for today. The ages range from as young as 6-months up to 5 years. All the families seemed to be in high spirits and excited, yet nervous for the upcoming operation.
The medical team was on point this morning, which makes sense since the Austin Smiles Puebla team is full of veterans. We have team members who have been attending these trips for 27-years. The two surgeons have been working together for about 20-years.
Here is a quick look at the Austin Smiles roster:
Team Leader: Jim Cullington
Mission Diretor: Leilani Briseño
Anes Team Leader: Stan Young
Mission Admin: Martha Mashburn
Operating Room 1:
Plastic Surgeon: Jim Cullington
CRNA: Brittan King
CST/Scrub: Stella Denny
RN Circulator: Liz Fox
Operating Room 2:
Plastic Surgeon: Dr. Teichgraeber
CRNA: Joey Rogers
CST/Scrub: Andrea Guidry
RN Circulator: Tim Simecek
Anesthesiologist FLOAT
Paula Rushing
Quint Barns
PACU (Recovery Room):
RN: Gayle Cullington
RN: Pat Meheriuk
RN: Cindy Thomas
RN: Angie Englert
Surgical Support:
Instruments: Tom Kirk
Computer/Photographer:
Photographer: Molly Gardner
Admin Computer: Christian Schley
Blogger: Dax Patton
Pre-Operative / Triage / Post-Op:
RN: Ashley Chitty
RN: Melissa Reyes
Non-Medical-Volunteers:
Spanish Translator: Deborah Kirk
Spanish Translator: Joe Gomez
Volunteer: Anthony Gomez
Volunteer: Forest Cook
Volunteer: Beau Theriot
Both the medical and non-medical staff did a great job! It’s tough going into a new location for the first time, but everyone did their part to make things work. We completed six surgeries and ended up pushing two of the patients back tin order to keep the team fresh from an already 13+ hour day.
Austin Smiles had a special visit today from Martha Erika Alonso, the wife of Rafael Moreno Calle, Governor of Puebla. She welcomed Austin Smiles, thanked us for our efforts, and even invited us to dinner with her and the Governor on Friday!
The six operations went really well and the transformations were amazing.Towards the end of the day the team ran into a 75-year-old there with his wife at the hospital who had been living with Cleft Lip his whole life. After a quick introduction to what we were doing there, we asked if he was interested in the reconstructive surgery and he agreed. We’ll be performing tests to make sure he’s fit for surgery and if so, adding him to the patient list!
Look for photos of day 1 soon!
AUSTIN SMILES
#smilepuebla14
