Regent Medical Contributes to Operation Smile

NORCROSS, Ga.   What needs 19 industrial  pallets to transport it, has a retail value of $175,000, and will help create smiles on 3,500 children this year?

The answer?  A years supply of Biogel® surgical gloves.

Regent Medical recently donated enough of its Biogel powder-free surgical gloves to supply all of Operation Smiles international medical missions in 2005.  The 19 pallets arrived at Operation Smiles corporate headquarters in Norfolk, VA, and will be used by the organizations medical volunteers while repairing facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate on children in 23 developing countries over the next 12 months.

Each year Operation Smiles teams of highly specialized medical volunteers perform surgeries and provide related healthcare while on various international missions.  During a typical two-week mission, approximately 100 to 150 children are given free surgical treatment.   

Regent Medical donated its Biogel® Indicator Visible Protection gloves which provide a double-gloving advantage for surgeons and other operating room staff as well as a method of indicating glove barrier failure.  In the presence of fluid, the donated gloves will alert the wearer with a dark colored spot if a puncture occurs.

As a leading global manufacturer of barrier protection for healthcare workers, Regent Medical hopes to create more smiles and change lives of the children in these countries by the donation of our Biogel® Indicator system of double-gloving, which is especially important for those involved in Operation Smile medical missions where the risk of infection may be greater, said Robert James, president of the Americas, Regent Medical. 

Medical gloves are critical because they protect both the patient and doctor, said Robert Rubin, MD, Operation Smile chief medical officer.  Operation Smile is extremely grateful for the opportunity to provide our medical volunteers with the option of wearing the double-glove system.  In addition, Regent Medicals donation will free up funds otherwise spent for surgical gloves and will enable us to operate on an additional 700 or more children next year, Rubin added.

Source: Regent Medical