Operation Walk Pittsburgh is a volunteer organization serving the mission of providing life-changing education, service, and surgery completely free of cost to patients in Pittsburgh and around the world. The group has organized many mission trips across Central America to provide the gift of mobility to patients in need. Each mission trip involves a team of surgeons, nurses, and other personnel who provide joint replacements and arthritis and joint health education. These trips offer more than just life-changing surgeries; they are opportunities for cultural exchange and international medical cooperation.
Since the group’s inception in 2009, anesthesiologists from UPMC and other hospitals and organizations both locally and across the US have participated in Operation Walk missions, including UPMC Magee-Womens, UPMC Passavant, UPMC Shadyside, and Butler Memorial Hospitals.
Several anesthesiologists and CRNAs from our department participated in Operation Walk’s 2018 mission to Antigua, Guatemala. Our team members were Wende A. Goncz, DO, MMM, CJCP (Anesthesia Team Leader and Coordinator), Sharad K. Khetarpal, MBBS, MD, FFARCSI, and CRNAs Francis Feld (UPMC Passavant), Charles D. Klingensmith (UPMC Passavant), and Catherine Mock (UPMC St. Margaret).
Before and during the mission, the Operation Walk team partnered with local physicians and care providers to screen nearly 70 surgical candidates; 40 patients were selected for surgery. After a group education class with patients, their families, and local staff, four patients received joint replacements. Over the next three days, the other 36 patients received 47 knee and hip replacements. The Operation Walk team, comprising 69 physicians, physician assistants, nurses, therapists, techs, translators, and other volunteer caregivers, partnered with local staff to care for the patients. Many of these patients had not walked without severe pain or deformity for most of their lives. Within just a few hours after surgery, they took their first steps towards recovery and a new-found quality of life. By the time the team left the following week, all the patients had returned to their homes. All have had their first follow up appointments with the local team and are doing remarkably well.
In just one week, the Operation Walk Pittsburgh team provided life-changing services to the people and communities of Antigua, Guatemala at no cost. In addition to providing life-changing surgeries, the group also provided 15 pallets of equipment and 8,000 pounds of implants, instruments, medications, crutches, walkers and other medical supplies.