St. Francis Health ortho surgeons spearhead medical mission to Nicaragua

MOORESVILLE, Ind. – The Operation Walk Mooresville medical and support team will be in Managua, Nicaragua, Feb. 26 through March 3 to provide hip and knee joint replacements and foot and ankle care for patients.

Operation Walk is a private, not-for-profit, volunteer medical services organization dedicated to providing surgical treatment to help patients affected by diseases of the hip and knee joints regain mobility and quality of life. The organization typically focuses on

developing countries, where individuals do not have access to total joint replacement procedures.

Amy Robertson, R.N., team coordinator for Operation Walk Mooresville, said team members always “worked so well together,” as well as with physicians and other medical staff in the country. “Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without the help of

Franciscan St. Francis Health and our sponsors,” she said.

“It is primarily in other countries that we are able to do God’s work and take care of those who might never have the chance to walk again,” said Merrill Ritter, M.D., who founded the Mooresville chapter in 2000 and the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery in 1986.

Operation Walk Mooresville has performed hundreds of free total joint replacements for patients in Nicaragua, Cuba and Guatemala. Each trip costs about $175,000, Ritter estimates. That covers transportation, cargo, shipping, medical supplies, medications and room and board. The cost of the donated implants and supplies and time given by medical staff members is additional.

Operation Walk personnel evaluate, treat and see patients through discharge. Operation Walk surgeons also educate in-country orthopedic surgeons, nurses and other health care professionals on advanced surgical techniques and treatments.