On May 15, Lovelace Women’s Hospital invited the students of Bel-Air Elementary school to name its new daVinci5 surgical robot.
The winner is … Walle.
The winning name came from Bel-Air Elementary School first-grade teacher Heather Hunt’s class.
General surgeons Mario Leyba and Michael Blea talked to students about their jobs and gave them pizza and T-shirts adorned with “We named the robot!” to mark the occasion. The name — which was submitted by first-grade student Mae Mitchell — was inspired by the 2008 Disney animated film about a robot on an uninhabitable Earth in the distant future.
Blea, who attended Corrales Elementary School, said Tuesday’s visit to Bel-Air was special to him. A similar visit from a University of New Mexico surgeon to his middle school inspired Blea to begin thinking about a career in medicine. “This is kind of full circle,” he said.
The Chamber’s Albuquerque Reads has tutors at Bel-Air Elementary each school year, as well as at Atrisco and Whittier elementaries. We congratulate the students on a great name.
Lovelace Women’s Hospital has been a Chamber member since 2007.