Our Medical Team could not function without the support of a dedicated group of non-medical volunteers. It takes each one of us for everything to run like a well-oiled machine, and we have accomplished that. These are the non-medical members of our American team:
Tom Fox is our Mission Director, and is responsible for everything involved in getting us from San Francisco International Airport through three additional airports (Security & Customs) to our destination and back home again. It is a huge job beginning at the Rotaplast warehouse loading those 30 boxes of medical supplies until our return to San Francisco International Airport, and the return of thirteen medical boxes back to the Rotaplast warehouse. Tom has done 26 or 27 missions over seventeen years. He’s an excellent Mission Director, filling in wherever needed. Here, he is taking a patient back up to the ward after surgery.
Ted Alex is our Quartermaster, right, working closely with our Mission Director. If you need something on the trip — cough drops, apple juice & diapers for patients, missing pieces for medical equipment, or to exchange currency, Ted is your man. He is constantly on the move, from finding things in the supply boxes to finding some obscure item needed for medical equipment. He’s been Assistant Mission Director for several trips now learning from Tom Fox, and we should see him leading a trip as Mission Director in the near future.
Leslie Purchase is in charge of Medical Records, a big job, tracking all of our patients, their surgeries, charts and keeping everything in order. We are fortunate that Leslie is also a physician, as her medical knowledge has been extremely helpful.
Nancy Boulden, PACU Assistant, helping with a patient recovering after surgery. She’s been kept quite busy in the PACU.
Bob Herold, DDS, Patient Transport, has been so busy that he has managed to elude the blog. Here he transports a patient to the ward after surgery on a gurney, so as not to disturb the work that was done.
Here, Bob Herold poses with a family who’s son and grandson had surgery.
Bob Herold taking another patient to the ward, which is located upstairs on the opposite side of the hospital. Bob is constantly going back and forth with patients or charts, bringing them down for surgery, and back up afterwards.
Thumbs up from this patient on his way back up to the floor. Bob probably put on as many miles as Ted did as Quartermaster. He and Ted are both members of the Rotary Club of Portsmith, New Hampshire, Rotary District 7780.
Susie Fox is our Ward Coordinator, responsible for getting our patients checked into their rooms each evening, rounding with physicians keeping track of those patient charts, and getting patients checked out of the hospital. Susie knows where each patient is at any given moment, and enjoys getting to know them. This is her second Rotaplast mission.
Barbie Hernandez is our Recreation Therapist, who was also seen earlier in the blog. She has continued to enjoy her time with the children and their families. She’s participating here in a puppet show with Seif and Jessy.
Your Mission Historian here is on her sixth Rotaplast trip, second as Mission Historian, and has been very busy photographing everyone, and working on the blog.
The greatest gift we can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks, we give ourselves.
~Brother David Steindl-Rast