Pat Wehrle
She’s giving smiles
Working as a nurse in University Hospitals operating rooms since 1981, Pat Wehrle specializes in lip and palate surgery.
“This is one of the few hospitals that have cleft lip and cleft palate programs,” Wehrle said.
She has taken this focused training on the road, traveling to developing countries around the world 15 times to bring this type of specialized medical care to people who need it.
“It is really a rewarding experience,” Wehrle said.
The program she participates in is called Operation Smile. In its 25th year, the non-profit agency constructs medical missions to nations worldwide that have inadequate health care.
Volunteers specifically travel to repair indigent children’s and young adults’ facial deformities, and they work with local health care workers and other community and private organizations to strengthen local health care systems.
The missions are developed from the “ground floor,” Wehrle said, adding that she has been to Venezuela, Kenya, Honduras, San Salvador and the Philippines, some multiple times.
Wehrle particularly enjoys learning from the people and cultures she immerses herself in on these trips.
“Nurses that we work with there are very hard-working. They often have limited supplies and are using the supplies in a way to make the most of it,” she said. “We share experiences about different things that go on in the operation room.”
“We work side-by-side for 10 to 12 hours a day for one to two weeks,” she said of the local nurses.
Because cleft lip and cleft palette deformities are so visible, Wehrle said, these services can prevent a lifetime of torment for the children.
“By doing medical missions, we repair the medical defects that otherwise may never be repaired,” Wehrle said.
“These children are often shunned in the society they grow up.”
The procedures take about two hours.
“It’s not often you can change someone’s life with your efforts in such a short period of time,” Wehrle said.
— Brian Morelli
