My name is Shakira María Linares Peña. I’m 26, from Havana, Cuba and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 22 months old. I couldn’t walk, I could only crawl. In my first year of life, I cried constantly with fever, and I woke up stiff in the mornings. After my first birthday, my ankle, knee and finger joints began to deform and that started my long road taking the steroid prednisone. I couldn’t walk when it was time to begin my schooling, so my mom took me in my wheelchair. After I turned six, thanks to the treatments my doctors provided, I was eventually able to walk to my classes.
My teen years consisted of treatments, surgeries, plates and screws in my knees and more medication. These interventions helped me become pain-free for a year, and I was able to finish 12th grade. I also started taking English language courses, which I really like. I am fascinated by everything that has to do with letters, just like I adore music. It is part of my world and my refuge in my saddest and hardest moments.
I took a job teaching computer classes at a school for children with special needs. Since there was transportation provided to and from the school, it made it easier on my health. I continued my studies at the University in Psychology, but can no longer do so. It’s difficult for an individual with poor health to go to class or work, because public transportation is unreliable and the commute to the University is a long one. For the past 5 years, I’ve been disheartened about my painful situation. I felt like it was a crime to be unable to work and study because I have the enthusiasm and motivation to be someone in life. I don’t want to sit around doing nothing. I want to explore my talents and my aptitude for music.
Due to my illness and the steroids, I’ve been taking for so many years, I have osteoporosis and necrosis in my body, especially my hips. I require a bilateral hip replacement but here in Cuba, there is no size small enough for me. Because of my RA and the prednisone injections, I did not grow. I am 4.5 feet tall, and the size of my joints reflects my small stature. My situation seemed impossible. There were no answers, and I had begun to give up hope and my dreams.
In November of 2022, I was watching the news and learned of Operation Walk. I took the information to Dra. Araceli Chico Capote, my Rheumatologist. She helped me to contact Hospital Fructuoso, where I was seen by Resident, Dr. Osmani, and ultimately placed in the care of Dra Luisa Amelia. Dra Amelia told me about the partnership between Hospital Fructuoso and Operation Walk and how they traveled to Havana on missions every few years. She said that they focused on knee and hip replacements and that they may be able to help me. She took X-rays of my hips and placed me on the screening list, giving me more hope than I had felt in years.
Shakira María
In November of 2024, I met this humanitarian team and saw members I’d contacted online, such as nurse Michelle Burdette and social media coordinator, Camilla Ward. I also was able to see friends, Armando and Maria de Jesus, former patients, and Liony, who, like me, was a young adult needing hip replacements. I was amazed that the team had made it to Cuba. There was a hurricane when they arrived, but they promised to come, and they did! I saw them arriving at the hospital and my heart was happy yet nervous at the same time. My turn to be interviewed and examined came and I will never forget what they told me:
“You are qualified and fit for surgery, but we have a problem. You are very small, and all of our implants are of standard measure. They are much too large to fit.”
They calmed me down and said they’d see what they could do. After waiting long into the afternoon, all patients were escorted into the hospital theater to receive the final word on who’d qualified for surgery.
It wasn’t me. I hadn’t qualified because of my small size.
You can imagine my disappointment, my heartbreak.
After the announcements were made, Dr. Paul Gilbert, their team leader, approached me. He told me that my hips couldn’t be replaced this mission, but he was going to take x-rays, study the measurements and find my true size. When they returned, he said they’d bring the correct implants. That was an emotional moment for me. The team didn’t leave me helpless but filled me with enthusiasm and hope. That’s how Operation Walk is, helping patients and bringing joy to our hearts.
I wait for them with the hope that they will bring my implants and give me a better quality of life. I dream of going out again, walking, climbing stairs, riding my bicycle, which I like so much and accompanying my mom to her doctor’s appointments. In short, I look forward to a life without any pain.
With love and hope in my heart,
Shakira María Linares Peña
Havana, Cuba