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In This Issue:
BWH’s Katherine Heald Quinlan, RN, shares a happy moment with a patient after her surgery in the Dominican Republic.
For Nela Garcia de Gonzalez, a 62-year-old woman from Higuey, a small town in the eastern part of the Dominican Republic, the simple things in life seemed grueling because of knee pain. If she dropped something on the floor, she couldn’t pick it up. She was unable to move easily around her house or walk up stairs. Her knee problems even robbed her of her greatest joy—walking along the beach.
But after receiving a knee joint replacement through the BWH-led Operation Walk Boston team, Garcia de Gonzalez is once again ready to live her life to the fullest.
“With my new knees, I can’t wait to go to the beach,” she told her caregivers at Hospital General Plaza de la Salud, where more than 50 Operation Walk Boston volunteers spent five days performing 59 joint replacements: 45 knee replacements and 14 hip replacements. The team also provided post-care after surgery and rehabilitation therapy.
The 2011 team was made up of volunteers from BWH and other Boston area hospitals, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, medical physicians, nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists and other critical operating room personnel who worked tirelessly each day for more than 14 hours to ensure patients were well-cared for.
Established in 2007 by Thomas S. Thornhill, MD, chief, and Richard Scott, MD, of the Department of Orthopedics, Operation Walk Boston’s mission is to improve the quality of life for impoverished patients through direct orthopedic surgical care and education of local health care providers.
“Joint replacement of the hip and knee are common procedures in the United States and other wealthy nations, but remain relatively inaccessible for most people in the developing world,” said Thornhill. “We feel extremely grateful for the opportunity to be working with our Dominican colleagues and patients. Many months of preparation and an incredible amount of hard work by a whole host of people has gone into making this mission a success.”
View the photo gallery here >>
Team Blog: http://operationwalkboston.blogspot.com