Operation Walk starts evalluations

Operation Walk is starting to evaluate patients at Santo Tomas Hospital for procedures scheduled for next October.

The scheduled visit to Panama is for next October with the objective of doing 130 free knee and hip implants for patients with limited resources.

This is their second visit to Panama in the frameworks of this humanitarian program.  The initiative has been coordinated by the Office of the First Lady, Fundayuda, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) and the  Santo Tomas Hospital.

The group is presently in Panama to evaluate and determine which patient will be suitable for surgical interventions.

Alfredo Maduro, president of Fundayuda, said that although the interventions are complicated, they will be carried out by specialists from the United States. ’’This is a group of doctors who operate an estimated 2,000 patients a year, and are experts in hips and knees," he said. These doctors, devotes their vacation time without payment to come to Panama and perform the operations.

 The necessary resources for the pre and post operative such as medications, walkers, crutches, canes,  including prostheses for the replacement of hips and / or knees to patients, are provided at no cost to all patients.