SMILE NETWORK

and

Southwest High School

skype between

SHS and Puebla, Mexico

Becca and Emma on the screen at Southwest speaking live from Puebla, Mexico

Ms. Wegner in pre-op on the screen at SWHS and live in Puebla

Emma Keiski, Becca Mattson and I are in Puebla, Mexico with the SMILE NETWORK, assisting a strong medical team as they repair cleft palates and harelips on about 50 children.

There is a heavy incidence of this condition in the Puebla area, and several cases are hereditary.

Our team includes two plastic surgeons from Montana, one anesthesiologist, two anesthetists, one general nurse, two medical records keepers (all from MN), one local doctor, and a group of volunteer students from the Universidad del Valle de Mexico. A wonderful group of people.

As of this writing (only one day in), Emma has been weighing and measuring the children for the local doctor taking their medical histories, and Becca has been writing the biographies of the children, all of which will help in determining exactly which children are operated on during this trip (the surgeries begin Monday). The girls started the day giving out the order numbers to the children, so they could be called up in a designated order. I'm doing some interpretation for the doctors and nurses.