All hands were on deck this morning as Syracuse's Operation Walk Cargo Team unloaded and packed 16-thousand pounds of medical supplies for their upcoming service trip to Guatmela. A team of 50 people…from surgeons and nurses to cardiologists and physical therapists will make the journey south in a few weeks.
Director Kimberly Murray says the group hopes to treat 75 patients in need of hip and knee replacements, and complete 90 or more free surgeries.
"We have to get the guarantee from the hospital that there will be no charges to that patient. We go to destinations and hospitals where there's a team able to do the screening for us. We review the criteria, the kinds of patients it would be optimal for us to be able to do surgery on. It's local people who are very needy in terms of medical needs, financial needs who otherwise would not have access to joint replacement surgery."
Operation Walk is a not-for-profit volunteer medical services organization that offers free surgical treatments for patients in underdeveloped countries. Hundreds of patient operations have been completed in countries such as Cuba, Nepal and Panama. Operation Walk Syracuse’s Blogger and photographer Frank Panzetta is looking forward to traveling to Guatemala for his third trip with the organization.
"It is inspiring for a variety of different reasons...not only the ability to help folks who might not have received the help, but the ability to work with people in different ways in a different part of the world. You start to build different relationships, and that makes it really special."
Syracuse's Operation Walk Team leaves for its 10-day mission trip at the end of August.