Day 0: Wednesday March 17th

For most members of the group, Wednesday was a travel day spent flying from Boston to the Dominican Republic. Our take-off was delayed when the plane’s “check engine” light came on as we reached on the runway, necessitating a trip back to the gate, but the flight was otherwise uneventful. Once in Santo Domingo we found the group buses at the airport, rode over to our hotel, and settled in for an evening of team meetings over dinner.

On the night before the mission begins in earnest tomorrow, excitement is high. After months of anticipation, the group is ready to get started. It’s important to acknowledge, however, the tremendous amount of work that has already taken place to ensure the success of the mission. Those who haven’t previously organized an international surgical mission (myself included) may not appreciate how much planning and preparation are required before the first patient presents to the pre-operative clinic tomorrow morning.

The process of identifying operative candidates began last fall, with our Dominican colleague Dr Luis Alcantara screening potential patients not only for appropriate surgical indications (end-stage arthritis) but also overall health and financial need. Since then there have been several additional screenings by teams of orthopaedic surgeons, anesthesiologists and others to optimize patient selection.

Considerable effort has also been spent procuring orthopaedic implants and medications, many of which have been supplied at no cost by generous donors. A wide variety of team members have been recruited, including surgeons, nurses, therapists, OR personnel and pharmacists, to name but a few.

Tomorrow, the team looks forward to meeting all prospective patients in the pre-operative clinic, and beginning with the first round of surgeries.

This blog will be updated daily during our weeklong trip, so be sure to check back often to stay current!

From mission coordinator Roya Ghazinouri

It is hard to believe we are only two days away from the start of our second independent mission to the Dominican Republic. Paul Laemmle, our OR Coordinator, and I have spent the day unpacking 500 boxes of cargo and meeting with our colleagues in the DR to finalize our plans for the start of a very successful mission.

I am humbled by the trust and support we have been receiving from our friends at Hospital Plaza de La Salud.

Dr. Alcantara and Dr. Gomez, our orthopaedic surgeons at the hospital, have screened and met with all of our patients, and have trained a team of Dominican medical students to work with us during our mission.

Our floor nurses in charge, Margaret Higgins and Barbara Aggouras, are arriving tonight. They will be holding a 6-hour training session for our Dominican nurses on the postoperative care of arthroplasty patients.

Our team will be arriving on Wednesday to start a week of surgeries, patient care, clinical education and collaboration.

Roya Ghazinouri, PT, DPT, MS
Mission Coordinator - Operation Walk Boston

Final preparations underway

With their departure date just days away, the Operation Walk Boston team is making final preparations for their 2010 trip to the Dominican Republic.

Patient selection, which began nearly six months ago, is nearly complete. Most recently the charts of all potential patients were reviewed in their entirety by a multidisciplinary team, which included representatives from Anesthesia as well as Orthopaedics. This year, the mission aims to provide approximately 60 joint replacements for 45-50 patients.

All supplies have been carefully packed and shipped to our host site, the Hospital General Plaza de la Salud in Santo Domingo.

Preoperative x-rays, which were formerly stored in hard-copy form, have been digitized to allow for electronic record-keeping.

The team is excited for their upcoming trip!

Tracking outcomes following joint replacement

In the provision of surgical services abroad, it is often difficult to obtain adequate follow-up. This year, Operation Walk Boston is attempting to break the mold by following up on the patients who underwent total joint replacement during prior trips.

The study, led by Dr Jeffrey Katz and medical student Nina Niu, will attempt to assess functional outcomes at one year following total hip and total knee arthroplasty. In addition, the study will explore the implications of living with osteoarthritis in a developing country, which has largely not been studied previously.

Orthopaedic supplies on the way to Haiti

This past Tuesday January 12, the country of Haiti was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake estimated to affect nearly three million people.

In light of initial reports documenting a dire need for orthopaedic supplies, the Operation Walk Board of Directors has decided to ship the orthopaedic cargo being stored in the Dominican Republic to Haitian hospitals located near the Dominican border.

In addition, physicians and surgeons from the Hospital Plaza de La Salud in Santo Domingo have been working with Partners In Health to provide care and supplies for those in need.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti, especially those who have lost loved ones.

Kicking Off Op Walk Boston 2010

The formal planning for Operation Walk Boston 2010 began this week with a pre-mission trip to the Dominican Republic. For the past three days, we have been busy selecting patients for our upcoming mission, meeting with hospital and local officials, and taking inventory on our cargo. The planning has gone very smoothly and our colleagues at Hospital General de la Plaza de la Salud in Santo Domingo have again been wonderful hosts. We are very excited to continue the mission planning and can't wait for our trip in 5 short months.

Roya Ghazinouri - Mission Coordinator

Jeremy Smith - Medical Coordinator

Paul Laemmle - Operating Room Coordinator

Planning for 2010 Trip Already Underway

Operation Walk Boston will return to the Dominican Republic in March 2010 for the third year in a row. While our next trip is over six months away, there is much advance preparation to be done including evaluating our next round of patients, preparing our volunteers, fundraising to make our trip possible, and getting all our cargo together and ready for shipment. A small group of volunteers will be making a preliminary visit to Santo Domingo in October to screen patients and work on all other aspects of the mission. We encourage you to visit our blog regularly to learn more about our progress and about how you can help support our efforts.