I was never the first one to jump in the water. But I was almost always pushed in, by a brother or some other scoundrel who did not care that I couldn’t swim. That is kind of how my work life was with Dr. Dorr. He pushed me (gently!) and didn’t give me time to hang by the side of the pool! He taught me to jump in and figure it out.
I have had to apply that lesson to figuring out how to safely get Operation Walk Los Angeles back to work. The pandemic set us back last year and for most of 2021, but it is time to jump in again. Yes, there are things to worry about (getting wet? Swallowing water?) but these are things that a strong team can figure out together.
All Operation Walk teams are looking to us, the Los Angeles team, for leadership. When is it safe to travel again? What precautions will we take to enter another country, and to come back to our own? What COVID restrictions will affect us? Will the hospital staff and patients in another country be vaccinated? Will there be other variants that could possibly affect our mission?
Our plan is to operate in Guatemala at the end of August. We have been in close contact with our counterparts there, and we all are working together to assure safety for our team, their team, and the patients we will operate. First, we will limit the amount of surgeries we do. We will keep the hospital at 2/3 capacity: only working in 3 operating rooms, keeping the post op ward 2/3 filled at most (this means early discharge, which means strong pre-op education for patients and families) to ensure social distancing.
Our team will be limited too, so we won’t be able to bring students and extra help. The slimmed down team will be extra busy filling all of the roles we generally have. Surgery will be limited to patients under 70 years old, one joint only, and we are only operating knee patients this trip and patients with low comorbidities (health risks like hypertension, diabetes, heart problems etc.).
The challenge of putting this team together has been finding a health care team who has the time to travel. Many people were off work during the pandemic and are just getting back to work and catching up on full schedules. We also want to narrow down the team to those individuals who are going to provide future leadership, and any downtime we have will be full of teaching and getting them trained to lead a mission in 2022.
There will be plenty of moving parts to organize this mission. The only way to make it happen is to jump in. I feel Dr. Dorr’s gentle nudge, telling me it is time to be brave, to think, to carry on… We have put together a smart team of hard working professionals who will help each other stay afloat. Stay tuned as we prepare for Guatemala.
– Jeri Ward, R.N., Executive Director