The U.S. organization OperationWalk, which for 25 years through joint replacement surgeries has brought a gift of mobility, will this time benefit with surgical procedures about 60 Cuban patients treated in hospitals throughout the country.

A specialist from the OperationWalk team at the Fructuoso Rodriguez Orthopedic Hospital during the reevaluation of patients who will undergo surgery. Photo: Alberto González.

According to the Cuban News Agency, this organization, based in Los Angeles, will remain with a medical team in the country from March 28 to April 7.

Members of the OperationWalk team at the Fructuoso Rodriguez Orthopedic Hospital. Photo: Alberto González

As part of this gesture of solidarity, patients who will receive hip and knee prosthetic replacements were evaluated at the Fructuoso Rodriguez Orthopedic Teaching Hospital.

Under the name OperationWalk in Memoriam Lawrence Dorr, the mission, on this occasion, pays tribute to the founder of this humanitarian work who died in 2020, and who was also an honorary member of the Cuban Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology.

William Long, orthopedic surgeon and founder of the mission in Cuba, told the press that part of the team that is currently in the largest of the Antilles was formed with Dr. Dorr, and his first trip was to the Caribbean nation, so this has always been a special country.

He affirmed that in his actions there is nothing political or religious, it is all based on love, helping patients who do not have access to care for arthritis or other bone and joint conditions free of charge, and sharing experiences that contribute to the training of Cuban specialists.

For assistant surgeon Martha Linehan, coming to Cuba is like returning to a family; she is also one of the founders of OperationWalk and because of her Latin origin, with a Peruvian father and Spanish mother, she said she is proud to be able to help in the country.

Another of the members of the mission is Ana Vásquez, who confessed to being happy to be on the island for the first time, after she began working with Dr. Dorr in 2000 and traveled through Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Roberto Balmaseda Manent, coordinator of the mission on the Cuban side, said that since 1997 every year the group of specialists had been in the country; only in 2001 and during the two years of the pandemic had they been absent from this humanitarian commitment.

He pointed out that during the next few days the scientific exchange will be promoted, with the projection of the operations for the professionals of the Fructuoso Rodriguez Hospital and through conferences, knowledge that will later be available on the Infomed portal.

The doctor said that the country has qualified specialists to perform these surgeries, but the acquisition of hip and knee prostheses, as well as the supplies, is difficult due to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States.

Furthermore, he said, these are costly surgical interventions, which we are often unable to perform despite having mastered the techniques, since only a hip or knee prosthesis in the international market can cost 6,000 dollars.

OperationWalk provides patients with all the medical supplies, from surgical instruments, expendable material, sutures to prostheses, and we support with the organization of the institution, the surgical rooms, the sterilization process... he pointed out.

Cuba was OperationWalk's first destination after Dr. Alfredo Ceballos Mesa, a prominent Cuban orthopedic surgeon, studied with Lawrence Dorr in the United States in 1996 how to perform knee prosthesis surgeries.

The following year, the first team arrived at Cuba's Center for Medical and Surgical Research; in time, they would also work at the Frank País International Orthopedic Scientific Complex, in addition to the Fructuoso Rodriguez Hospital.

More than a hundred missions in 25 countries have benefited more than 17,000 people, who have been assisted by specialists from this project, which has 20 work teams.

Regarding hip and knee replacements, a Cubadebate report details that these are very complex surgical procedures that require qualified medical talent. They are very necessary interventions that help people who require them to be free from a life of pain and disability, and even return to work and feel socially useful.

This is also corroborated by OperationWalk on its official website: "These are life-changing surgeries, because patients cannot work because they cannot walk, they are a burden to their families and villages and they have chronic pain. After surgery, they walk from the hospital."

The international organization notes that "Dr. Dorr pioneered rapid recovery techniques for implant patients in the United States (getting patients up and walking the day after surgery) and now shows doctors across the country how to get patients moving quickly, thereby reducing postoperative complications. Dorr's bone type is referenced internationally; his minimally invasive surgical techniques and pain management program have been adopted by hundreds of surgeons; and his ongoing discovery of the relationship of the spinopelvic to the hip has improved understanding of the functional anatomy of the hip. All of this knowledge is imparted to physicians in every country."