Operation Walk El Salvador Trip
Utah surgeons have performed more than 280 surgeries in El Salvador, bringing life-changing hip and knee replacements to the disabled.
In 2012, with more than 30 volunteers from Operation Walk Utah, and under the leadership of volunteer orthopedic surgeon Aaron Hofmann, MD, 44 joint replacement surgeries were performed in one grueling and inspiring week. The successful mission inspired a return trip in 2013.
Altogether the team has visited El Salvador five times between 2007 and 2012. There are more than 2,987 individuals still waiting in El Salvador who have applied and qualify to receive surgical help.
Joint replacements are rare in developing countries, where patients live lives of pain and suffering with treatable joint diseases, such as congenital hip disease, trauma or osteoarthritis. In El Salvador, a country with a population of approximately 1.3 million people, only 500 joint replacements were performed last year–a small comparison to the more than 900,000 in the U.S. Arthritis is one of the leading causes of disability in the world. Advanced hip and knee disease causes intractable pain and disability, leading to poverty, depression and social isolation.
Help provide more joint replacement surgeries in El Salvador by donating today.
Operation Walk Utah is a private, not-for-profit volunteer medical services organization which performs free hip and knee replacement surgeries for impoverished patients in developing countries and the United States. Specifically, it helps individuals in El Salvador and in the Utah community .All supplies–from the joint implants, sterilization and radiology equipment, antibiotics, drugs and dressings–are donated, and Operation Walk professionalsoffer their services and skills. However, this alone has not been enough to meet the demand. Operation Walk Utah needs your help to extend this life-improving procedure to more recipients.
Here are a few examples of what your donation can do:
$10 will pay for vitamins and supplements
$20 will pay for crutches
$50 will fund a bath chair and commode
$100 will pay for a patient’s pain medications
$250 will pay for antibiotics for surgery
$500 will pay for physical therapy
$1,000 will pay for a prosthetic implant
$5,000 will fully support one hip or knee replacement
Hundreds who are in need of joint replacement need your help. DONATE TODAY.
Through Operation Walk Utah, people can get the help they need to be able to walk and return to an active life-style, and local physicians and medical staff can learn updated techniques in joint replacement surgery in rehabilitation. This leaves a lasting impression. The Operation Walk Utah mission has shaped partnership with local hospitals, helping with further education and training and providing a solution to the problem in a more long-lasting, meaningful way.
Please help support efforts in El Salvador. Volunteer or donate today.
