Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists have been called the "best kept secret in health care." With some larger-than-life assistance from Lawrence environmental artist Stan Herd, however, the group's reputation for caring and professionalism is no longer secret.
A group of CRNAs from across the country unveiled a football field-sized art portrait titled "Sacred Trust" on Saturday at S.E. 45th Street and Paulen Road. The occasion was accompanied by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and group photograph session to celebrate National Nurse Anesthetists Week, which officially begins today.
The more than 50 CRNAs in attendance were addressed by Mayor Joan Wagnon, Herd and other speakers. Throughout the afternoon, helicopter rides were provided by Hetrick Aircraft, of Topeka, so attendees could see the colorful field portrait -- a CRNA in surgical cap and mask clasping the hand of a young girl -- in its entirety, from 500 feet in the air. Herd was commissioned by the group to produce the huge portrait.
Wagnon commended the CRNAs for their professionalism, dedication and leadership on advocacy issues related to rural and urban health care.
"I know that you and your profession are absolutely critical to the production of health-care services," she said.
Administering anesthesia prior to surgery is what CRNAs do, but that isn't all, according to project coordinator and 17-year CRNA Kim Zweygardt, of St. Francis, Kansas.
"Being a patient advocate is what nurse anesthesia is all about," Zweygardt said in a news release. "We feel it is a sacred trust to care for our patients when they cannot care for themselves."
"Often we have only minutes to soothe their fears and let them know we will take care of them and be there every moment of their surgery," she said.
Antonio Luciano, of New York City, is a 26-year CRNA who, as in Herd's portrait, reaches out to children. Since 1989, he has worked with an organization called Healing the Children, which has provided free services to 60,000 parents and children in Third World countries.
A fluent speaker of Spanish, his most recent visits have been to Ecuador and Colombia, helping provide anesthesia for surgery involving children suffering from cleft lip and palate, congenital defects and injuries resulting from war or other situations. Families have walked or hitchhiked up to 100 miles to receive the free surgeries.
"The most touching thing is to see the children smile for the first time, when the cleft lip or palate is repaired," he said. "The parents, the tears that come to their eyes when they see the transformation of their own child -- they never knew what their child really looked like."
The field art project was originated by Zweygardt, who brought the idea to Herd. Together with an Internet CRNA advice and support group, "The Old Gas Passers," of which Zweygardt is a member, CRNAs from across the nation sponsored and attended the celebration.
