Palm Beach County School District educator Allyson Gacharna recently visited the Emergency Department at Palms West Hospital and was surprised to find a familiar face behind the mask of her patient care technician — a former student of hers at New Horizons Elementary School.
“As an educator, you dread being out of work due to illness. However, it is such a different experience when you walk into an ER and receive caring and thoughtful attention from the medical staff involved. This is exactly what happened to me when I had to visit Palms West Hospital,” Gacharna said. “To my surprise, my experience was even more rewarding when I discovered that my former student, Stanley Pulido, was the one taking care of me.”
Pulido is a new ER patient care technician at Palms West Hospital and is also a volunteer firefighter. He graduated from Wellington High School’s Fire Academy.
Stanley, along with his twin brother Xavier Pulido, were both students of Gacharna’s in fourth grade at New Horizons back in 2008.
“When I see my students, past, present and future, I pray that when they grow up, they are able to give back to their community,” Gacharna said. “Today, I feel that Palms West Hospital is a great place where my babies — how I fondly called my students — can do just that.”
