Last year, a dedicated team of seventh-grade students from Westside Neighborhood School made Operation Walk the focus for their SPLASH (Solving Problems for Los Angeles’ Society and Health) project. During that year, they learned about our organization, assisted in packing supplies, raised funds, and created discharge kits for our missions to both the Philippines and Cuba.
Countdown to Cuba
Twenty-nine years ago, our mission began. A mission to restore mobility to undeserved patients around the world, one surgery at a time. It’s been an incredible journey, one that continues today.
That journey started in Havana. This fall, we will be undertaking our 11th mission with our colleagues in Cuba. We’ve worked in three hospitals, over the span of 29 years, and replaced 547 joints. OpWalk has given hundreds of patients a second chance at life and we are just getting started.
A Request for Help
Below is a letter written by a concerned child of a parent in need. Her mother, Norma, has a condition that has affected both of her knees, making movement almost impossible.Her daughter Zaily shares the concern of many children, parents, co-workers, and friends who write to us daily about their loved ones—people in need of a miracle. Many thanks to Zaily for sharing her family’s story.
Operation Walk Los Angeles Rising Stars
Over the next few months, we will be sharing updates from young volunteers who, even at a young age, have made a large impact on our organization. This month we learn more about Sarina Parks and her plans after she graduates High School this year.
Thank you, Sarina, for all you have done for OpWalk, and we wish you success in your continuing education.
Next Mission: Cuba 2025
In 1997 Operation Walk was born in Cuba. Dr. Lawrence D. Dorr was inspired by the humanitarian work of Operation Smile, an organization that performs free operations on the faces of children. The names of these charitable organizations are similar but that is where the similarities end.
Volunteer Voices: Memories and Impacts from Peru, 2007
The year was 2007, it was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and I was on an Operation Walk mission to Lima Peru. Like most mission trips, after the bulk of the work was completed, we were allowed some free time to enjoy the city or surrounding region before we returned home. I decided to meet some friends at the catacombs.
“Do you think you could write me a note for my instructor, letting them know why I wasn’t in class this week?” This is not the typical question our surgeons hear when visiting their patients on the floor. Dr. Russ Cohen smiled at patient Luis Duran Diaz and said he would gladly write the letter.
Luis is a twenty-year-old student studying engineering. He loves sports and often played soccer as a child and young adult. But science and math were his true loves and he decided he wanted to go to University and study to become an engineer.
His plans were interrupted before he had even left high school. In 2019, they feared that Luis had a tumor in his right hip, but instead, they found avascular necrosis. This is a condition that occurs when bone tissue in the hip dies due to a lack of blood supply. This can lead to the collapse of the hip joint and bone, which can cause pain and reduced mobility.
Despite his diagnosis, Luis continued on to the University. The pain in his hip continued to increase each year. He would tire easily while in class and his hip would ache uncontrollably when the weather was cold. He knew that he couldn’t keep living this way but didn’t know how to change his situation.
He heard about Operation Walk, and his mother and older brother traveled with him for two hours to attend patient screening. He was selected for a hip replacement and received his surgery the next day from Dr. Russel Cohen and this OR team. Luis worked hard after he arrived on the floor, completing all requests from our physical therapy team and was released a day after his surgery.
Luis can’t wait to see what the future holds for him. “Thank you for helping me to live a normal life without pain. Keep helping others like me and the people of Cuba. Your team makes dreams come true.”
Luis walking two weeks after surgery
Working Together to Change Lives
Operation Walk is composed of twenty-one chapters across the US, Canada, Ireland and Thailand. Each team secures volunteers with the range of skills needed based on the Operation Walk model and raises its own funds. Operation Walk Los Angeles representatives have trained each team on how to perform a successful Operation Walk mission, ensuring that quality standards and patient care remain consistent across the network.
The Youth Movement Continues
In February, a group of volunteers gathered at the Operation Walk Los Angeles warehouse to clean, organize, and palletize durable medical equipment (DME) for our next mission.
Liony (Cuba 2024)
Ten years ago, Liony Aguilar was a healthy, outgoing young man who was into all types of sports: karate, handball, baseball, and played soccer daily. At first, he focused on baseball, aspiring to compete in the Provincial Team League but encountered pain in his throwing arm and had to shift his focus. Although he still played soccer, he knew he had to find a profession to support himself. Liony tried a few things until he found barbering and liked it. He learned and practiced every day to improve his skills.
Life seemed to be on track until he contracted a virus and was bedridden for four months with extreme pain in his hips. Liony described the progression of his disease. “At first, the pain in my hips was mild, and over time, it got worse, until I had to stop what I liked doing most and endured limitations even to walk. That’s when I started using crutches, around 2020.”
Gone were the days of playing soccer with his friends. He continued in his profession as a barber but needed to cut hair sitting on a tall stool because his hip pain made it too agonizing to stand. He longed for a chance to regain a normal life, his old life.
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| Liony using a walker one day after his surgery | Liony two weeks after his hip replacement |
He heard about Operation Walk from a report on television and, from there, went to Hospital Fructuoso to register for the prospective patient list. His girlfriend brought him to patient screening and the team decided in order to give this 27-year-old young man the best possible outcome, he needed bilateral hip surgery. On the second day of surgery, he received his hip replacements. By that afternoon, he was standing on his own and taking a few steps. The next day, he was walking further, even attempting to climb stairs.
Liony shared his thoughts for a future free from pain and restriction, “When I am completely recovered, I will go back to my normal life and focus on growing professionally. I have my own barber shop in my house, and I want to grow my customer base. Although I would like to play soccer, I think that it is safer that I take it easy for a while as I recover. I am extremely thankful for you, donors of Operation Walk, for giving me a chance, a chance at a better life. Know that I will always carry you in my heart. I will never forget the gift you have given me.”
Viviana Velazquez (Cuba 2024)
Some people may ask, how great a difference can joint replacement surgery make in a person’s life? In two years, what really can change so profoundly that it affects a person’s entire path, the people around them, and their community?
Viviana’s story is a story that answers both of those questions and more. In 2022, Viviana came to us, unable to walk unassisted and unable to have a productive life where she was an active part of her community. After undergoing bilateral hip surgery and dedicating the following two years to her rehabilitation, we had the honor of Viviana returning to Hospital Fructuoso, not just to visit but to be a volunteer with our team. Living the experience that our prospective patients were about to have, she was an invaluable instrument of knowledge, comfort and inspiration.
Thank you, Viviana, for spending the week with us at Hospital Fructuoso and for returning to greet the patients this past week for their 2-week evaluations. Through you, we can extend the patient care we began on November 8th and continue to watch the miracles that joint replacement surgery can produce.
“My life has taken a 180-degree turn. Two months after my surgery, I started working online with a U.S. company that specializes in wellness, health, and weight loss, which allows me to generate income from home. I am currently a member of an animal rescue and welfare association, working to rescue and adopt stray animals and also supporting the care of the animals at the Havana Zoo.
I’ve created a WhatsApp group for patients who have undergone surgery or are waiting for surgery, where we provide emotional support and have had the pleasure of communicating with Operation Walk patients from other countries. One of the experiences I have enjoyed most in these two years has been spending these days with you all at Hospital Fructuoso. Being able to help as a volunteer and continue following up with patients has been incredible. I have a special connection with them because your team knows what a damaged hip or knee looks like, but I know how it feels. The pain, the fear, and the frustration of feeling trapped in your own body—I lived with that for many years.
Viviana, in 2022, after bilateral hip surgery
If my story serves as a testimony for people to see all the good that comes after surgery, how life is recovered and enjoyed, and if it helps people understand the importance of donations so that dreams can continue to be restored, then all the waiting and pain endured will have been worth it.”
Service Before Self
Image: Dr. Dickey Jones during patient screening-Nicaragua 2015
Thoughts from Veteran Volunteer, Charlie Ward
I volunteered for my first Operation Walk trip after I retired from the military. There in Nicaragua, Dr Dickey Jones, a long-time supporter of OpWalk, took me under his wing and taught me how to support the mission. After the last day of surgery was complete, he encouraged me to get into the business of medicine and pointed me toward a new career as an Orthopedic Rep.