“A life in pain, is no life at all.”
A simple statement but one that gets straight to the point.
After two and a half years of correspondence, I sit in a room with Pedro and his wife Ayda, a day before surgery. I’ve just asked the question, “What are you most looking forward to after your hip replacements?” Ayda’s answer was swift and without hesitation. After her initial thought, she continued, “I want to walk normal again. I want to feel like myself. I just want to play with my grandson.”
Pedro agreed. “I don’t want to see her in pain anymore, struggling to walk. I don’t want to be in pain anymore, to have to depend on our son and our neighbors to do the simplest of tasks; going to the bank, picking up groceries, cleaning our home.”
Pedro and Ayda met 47 years ago and this May they will have been married 46 years. They made their home in Cardenas, along the coast of Cuba, have two children Harold and Hánele and now three grandchildren. Ayda worked as a professor of athletics at University, eventually becoming a massage therapist specializing in sports medicine. Pedro built his career in the hospitality industry starting as a busboy, moving to waiter, and eventually working the front desk.
Both suffered the effects of repetitive stress on their joints due to the nature of their jobs. This stress took a tole on their joints, primarily their hips. Ayda needed her left hip replaced and Pedro needed bilateral surgery. They had been searching for years for an answer, as implants were almost impossible to find in Cuba. One evening in 2019, Pedro says they saw a story how an American-based non-profit, Operation Walk, was coordinating with Hospital Fructuoso Rodriguez in Havana to replace hips and knees. Their excitement soon changed to disappointment, discovering that the team was on the way back to the United States and that they had missed their opportunity.
This began Pedro’s journey to contact Operation Walk and find a way to get both himself and his wife on the screening list. He faithfully wrote our Los Angeles chapter as well as Dr. Jared Roberts from Operation Walk Albany. Pedro was put in contact with Dr. Roberto Balmaseda and his team and after waiting almost three years were screened by our team of volunteers.
That week in April was one that Pedro says changed both of their lives. “To be free of the grinding pain that haunts every step. To see your wife smiling again, a true smile. That is the miracle we hoped for.”
Both Pedro and Ayda received a left hip replacement and are now together on the road to recovery. Recently, they made the two and a half hour journey to Hospital Fructuoso with their son Harold for their two week check-up with Dr. Balamseda. Pedro sent me a message that evening to update me on their progress and shared a few thoughts, this is how he concluded:
“We remembered all of you through the corridors and rooms.
We continue and will continue to be grateful to Operation Walk and the Fructuoso team because we have already shown not only improvement, but also mobility and the desire to run into our future.
A hug for all, from the two of us,
Ayda and Pedro”.