Rotaplast | Helping Hands

Day 9 in New Delhi, India

In addition to our medical team, this mission is supported by eight non-medical volunteers. They were selected for specific skill and interest sets in order to assist the mission in roles which required no medical background, training or experience. On most missions these roles are filled by individuals who have some relationship to the sponsoring Rotary clubs/district or major sponsor. Because this mission was funded by numerous individual contributions, its non-medical volunteers were selected primarily from experienced Rotaplast volunteers.

Each mission is led by the mission director who is responsible for the everyday details of the mission. He/she is the spokesperson for the group and the primary interface with the local Rotary club, the hospital administration, and Rotaplast International.

Randy Floyd is the Mission Director for this trip. He comes from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, where he is the Chief of Police for the Telford Borough. He is a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Harleysville and has been on eight previous Rotaplast missions.
Dana Morrison enters and tracks medical records for each patient. She registers patients, records evaluations, procedures, and surgical records; publishes the daily surgical schedules, and maintains the individual charts of all patients. Professionally Dana is a medical transcriptionist at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, California, and in her spare time she volunteers at the Rotaplast Office. This is her first mission.
The patient transporter role is performed by Paul Quintavalla from Broomall, Pennsylvania. He has been on four previous Rotaplast missions. He is a food marketer and is a member and past-president of the Rotary Club of Broomall. He and Woofer are hits with the children in the wards and pre-op room. 1-IMG_5933b
Dennis Bourassa is the ward coordinator. He supervises the wards, directs patient transportation needs, and interfaces with the two mission pediatricians. Dennis comes from Garberville, California, and is a retired general contractor. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Garberville and has been on 14 Rotaplast missions.
Paulette Schulte serves as the assistant in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). She assists the nurses in the recovery room as patients awake from surgery. This is Paulette’s first mission. She is the retired assistant director for University of California San Francisco’s Cardiovascular Research Institute.

Quartermaster Brian Walker is responsible for the transport of 33 boxes of medical supplies and equipment from San Francisco through customs to Sarvodaya Hospital and returning the equipment after the mission. During the mission he warehouses the supplies and replenishes them as needed. He also maintains a hospitality room at the hotel for after-hours relaxation and fellowship. Brian is a member of the Rotary Club of Garberville in Garberville, California. He is on the Board of Directors for Rotaplast, Inc., has been on 21 Rotaplast missions, and has conducted two site visits to new mission locations.
The sterilizer role is performed by Ted Alex. Utilizing a portable autoclave, he cleans and sterilizes surgical equipment used in the operating rooms. Ted is a past president and member of the Rotary Club of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and is a property manager by profession. He has been on 4 Rotaplast missions.
Roger Schulte is the photojournalist who photographs patients prior to and after surgery for identification and documentation purposes. He also takes photographs of mission activities and the mission team. He writes and publishes the official daily blog of the mission. Roger is a retired public school administrator, past district governor for Rotary District 5300, and a past president and member of the Rotary Club of Upland, California.This is Roger’s second mission.
Non-medical volunteers are essential for the success of any mission. They fulfill necessary roles which enable the medical staff to carry out their professional duties to provide safe and quality surgical procedures to children and adults with cleft lips and/or palates and other conditions needing the skills of a plastic surgeon.