We salute those who - New Orleans City Business

PHYSICIANSander FlormanPosition: associate professor of surgery and pediatrics, TulaneUniversity School of Medicine; director of abdominal transplantation,Tulane Medical Center and Children’s HospitalAge: 41Family: wife, Toby; children, Zachary, 10, Frankie, 7, Eric, 3Education: bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Brandeis University;doctor of medicine, University of Louisville School of MedicineDr. Sandy Florman and his team at Tulane UniversitySchool of Medicine perform an average of 200 organtransplants a year, but one recent transplant holds a specialplace in Florman’s heart.Two days before Christmas last year, Florman performedan auto kidney transplant on a 6-year-old boy,removing and repairing the organ rather than replacing itwith a donor organ. He had carried out the procedure ontwo adults but never on a child.The surgery was a success. Two months later, the boy wasoff his blood pressure medicine, back in school and doingwhat normal 6-year-old boys do, Florman said.“It’s an extremely uncommon procedure but the onlykind of surgery we could have done on him to save him,”Florman said. “It was a tremendous feeling to see that outcome.The family was eternally grateful, and that’s a big reasonwhy you do this, to see those kinds of success stories.”Florman is an associate professor of surgery and pediatricsat Tulane University School of Medicine and directorof abdominal transplantation at Tulane Medical CenterRegistered nurse Claudine Grobart chats with Dr. Sander Florman.and Children’s Hospital. In addition to surgical transplants,Florman and his team also handle non-transplantproblems related to the liver, kidneys and pancreas.“It’s not always about surgery and transplants. We havea group of medical and surgical people who put theirheads together and come up with a best treatment on apatient-by-patient basis,” Florman said.“It requires a team, a lot of people to make this happen,and I am fortunate to work with an incredible staff.”•— Tommy Santoraphoto by Tracie Morris Schaeferphoto by Frank AymamiPHYSICIANAna HandsPosition: international health and transplant services director, Ochsner Health SystemAge: 47Family: singleEducation: bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology, University of Monterrey inMexico; doctor of medicine, University of Zulia, Maracaibo in VenezuelaDr. Ana Hands has taken the lead on eliminatingcultural barriers for Ochsner HealthSystem’s patients by ensuring its staff is trainedto communicate and connect with patients ofvarious cultures.As director of international health and transplantservices, Hands coordinates languageinterpretation services for patients who speak alllanguages, including individuals who are hearingimpaired. She also has provided basic Spanishtraining for more than 400 Ochsner employeessince 2005 and plans on implementing basicEnglish training for Spanish-speaking employeesthis year.Hands said the employees’ training needsresulted from an increase in the local Hispanicpopulation after Hurricane Katrina. The influxrequired each Ochsner campus to provide“quality services” to patients in their own language,she said.Each year, Ochsner treats about 5,000 internationalpatients from places such as SaudiArabia, Central America and the Bahamas. A significantnumber are referrals from Puerto Rico,where socioeconomic issues are coupled withlanguage and education barriers, she said.In one case, a Puerto Rican patient was flownto Ochsner for emergency transplant, and Hands’staff worked to meet the patient’s one requestupon arrival — to have a hamburger. Her teamfulfilled the request without realizing it would bethe patient’s last meal — he passed away beforethe transplant.The incident remains fresh in Hands’ mindmostly because of the depth of gratitude shereceived from the patient’s wife and children,who said the service they received at Ochsnerexceeded the level of care they would havereceived in their home country.“I said to myself, ‘Wow, we must be doingsomething right,’” Hands said. “The kind of jobwe do, we make people happy even when theend result is not what we expect.”•— Nayita WilsonNew Orleans CityBusiness — May 25, 2009 23