It was another great day here! It was our last day of surgery. How the time has flown! The surgeons accomplished 8 surgeries today! A total of 59 surgeries have been completed, and multiple speech pathology treatments. This week, we have had a surprising number of cancellations for surgery. Some gave good news in that it was determined that surgery was unnecessary, and others have been sick with a temporary cold or the like.
Above we have Dr. Anne DeLaney; Dr. German, a bone graft specialist from Pereira, Colombia; and the indefatigable Dr. Joe Benacci, Surgeon.
Speaking of the bone graft, it was performed on a boy about nine years old. Dr. Joe removed a small piece of bone from the right hip, and Dr. German placed it in the boy’s upper jaw. This will set the stage for another surgery, probably dental, to help his teeth come in more correctly.
Two surgeons, one patient.
Today, I have a shout out to the anesthesiology team! Anesthesiologists are like stealth fighter planes – always close by, circling, never taking their eyes off the ball. Above we have Dr. Sheila Wong, Dr. Sal Dasti, Sharyn Babbitt, CRNA, and Dr. Claudia Santosa.
Joining them in the OR are Nini, a scrub nurse, Carole (RN), and Dr. Sandy McCulloch, Surgeon.
Our fearless leader, Randy Floyd, had to leave the mission today (as planned) so we had a little party for him after the patients had all been seen. We did some gift exchanges to the nurses and other local staff and they reciprocated. You’ll notice how beautiful the Colombian people are!
Here are some patients from today.
Proud Papas. We’ve seen so many great dads here. So inspiring!
We will see almost all of our patients again tomorrow for their post-op appointments.
I hope to see you, too, in the blogosphere. I never thought I’d say that.