BOSTON RED SOX REHABILITATION SERVICE NIGHT

Congratulations to Melissa Tilton who was selected to throw out first pitch at Sox Game on the August 20th!

Part-Time Furnished Occupational Therapist Office Sublets Available in Cambridge and Back Bay click here for more information

SAVE THE DATE

MAOT 2018 Annual Conference

“Building Resilience:

Quality of Life through Occupational Therapy”

October 26, 2018

Four Points By Sheraton Norwood

Keynote address by Richard Mangino

“It gives you a cold sweat when you’re taking a face off the donor,” Bohdan Pomahac says. He should know. As the head of the plastic surgery transplant team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Pomahac this year oversaw three separate procedures in which a patient received a brand-new face. Oh, and he also supervised a transplant that resulted in an amputee getting two new hands.

Pomahac is a man of science, of course, but he gets a little mystical when describing the intricate process. First he has to cut away the donor’s tissue. After the face is removed, it’s transferred to a preservative solution that makes it appear ghostlike. “It’s pale, there is no color in the lips; it’s almost gray,” Pomahac says. “And then we bring it over here to the hospital and connect the vessels that provide the inflow and outflow of blood. That’s the magical moment. You see the blood rushing in, and suddenly a wave of pigment spreads through the face from one side to the other. You can’t believe it’s happening.”

After seeing successful face transplants in Europe, Pomahac became convinced that he could do the procedure here. The biggest challenge, he says, was proving to the hospital that these non-lifesaving surgeries were a worthy endeavor. Yes, the patients may be alive, he argued, but what kind of lives were they living? “There is no functional prosthetic for the face. These are the aspects of human life that we can restore,” he says. And “no matter what prosthesis you have, the hand is not just something that’s mechanical. You want to touch your family or loved ones.”

After convincing the teaching hospital to develop the plastic surgery transplant program, Pomahac had to persuade the transplant-organ community to allow him to harvest donor tissues. He then raised millions of dollars and worked with healthcare providers to get his patients covered for the immunosuppressant drugs they’d need to prevent rejection.

Exhibit at the MAOT 2018 Conference

“Building Resilience:

Quality of Life through Occupational Therapy”

October 26, 2018

Four Points By Sheraton Norwood

Click here for Exhibitor Form

Thank you to this years MAOT Exhibitors!

American International College

AOTA

Bay Path University

Image Sportsware

MassMATCH

MGH Institute of Health Professions

Natale Company & SafetyCare

Numotion

Partners HealthCare at Home/Spaulding Rehabilitation Network

Perkins Library

Regis College

REquipment DME & ATREUSE Program, Inc.

Shriners Hospital for Children

CALL FOR AWARD NOMINATIONS

Nominations must be received via email or postmarked by September 28, 2018

Click here to see our nomination categories and recognize a Occupational Therapy Professional!

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Membership in MAOT is an investment in yourself and our profession.  We offer discounted continuing education, networking opportunities, advocacy and a community of practitioners to help support and further your career!

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