Every year, for the past 8 years, we have traveled to the Dominican Republic in the month of January to perform hip and knee joint replacements on the indigent people of the Dominican Republic.
We provide care to the indigent people of the Dominican Republic in the area of Santiago and surrounding mountain villages.
Through our mission we allow patients the opportunity to regain mobility that otherwise they would never have the opportunity to realize. There is no cost to the patient. All implants are donated as are the remainder of the surgical supplies. These people would never be able to afford these services on their own.
The Operation Walk-St. Louis orthopedic team’s 9th annual mission trip to the Dominican Republic took place January 11-18th, 2019. In conjunction with Operation Walk- Portland, we performed approximately 57 total knee and total hip replacements during our four days of surgery. Patient selection took place at screening clinics held at the ILAC mission in Santiago, and at Juan Bosch Traumatology Hospital in La Vega. The operations were performed at Juan Bosch Hospital with the participation of the orthopedic residency training program as our goal has been to make our presence obsolete by training the Dominican orthopedic surgeons the principles of joint replacement surgery. I greatly appreciate the support from the Doximity in the purchase of my air fare to make the trip.
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Thanks,
John B. Powell, MD
