Andres Hernandez wants to go back to work. He has worked on a farm all his life. Starting just into his teens, his family didn’t have the money to send him to school. It was something he wanted, but knew that earning money to support his family took precedence. It wasn’t a rare occurrence, he says that most of his friends went to work as soon as they turned 13. This is something he wants to change for his children. His oldest has completed school, his middle child is currently enrolled, and the youngest has just started first grade. He only wishes for a better life for them.
Andres had to stop working two years ago. The pain in his left knee was too intense. He worries because his oldest son is their sole provider. He has taken over Andres position as the breadwinner of the family, but it doesn’t provide enough income to support the family.
Andres’s knee is very unstable, he cannot trust each step and relies on crutches to help him move around his home. He was not sure if this was a condition that always existed or it was from one of the multiple injuries that he’d experienced throughout his life working on the farm. He related that for the past 30 years he has worked twelve to fourteen hour days. Many times he has fallen, been struck by farming implements; spending a lifetime on his feet.
To have found out about Operation Walk was a miracle, he says. He didn’t know that there were people that could help him, because on his own, surgery was impossible. His case was one of the most difficult that was presented to our surgeons. On the final day of surgery, Dr. Kevin Bowers and Dr. Khoa Vo worked for almost four hours to straighten his left leg and replace the knee that had iinflicted so much pain. One of the last patients to return to the ward, Andres only wanted to rest and recover for his physical therapy session the next day.
Morning came quickly, but when our team arrived, Andres was ready to walk. He gathered his crutches and was one of the first patients to complete his physical therapy. His surgical team made a special visit to check on him and his progress and were encouraged by his determination to leave the hospital that same day.
Andres’s goals for the future are to return to work, support his wife Odilia and their children and be able to walk free from pain. He wants to see his children have the opportunities not afforded to him when he was young. He also wants to walk with his wife to the store and the park. No more crutches and no more pain.
