TBC, Westport, Mayo
Operation Walk Ireland
Operation Walk Ireland provides hip and knee replacements for people with advanced arthritis in Vietnam.
Operation Walk Ireland is at ground level working to educate Vietnamese surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and physiotherapists in Vietnam about joint replacement.
overview
Operation Walk Ireland has travelled to Hanoi in Vietnam since 2017. Our 2023 trip to Hanoi was our fifth mission and their first since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2016, when Operation Walk Ireland first travelled to Hospital 108, the hospital would carry out approximately 150- 200 joint replacements per year.
Last year, 108 Hospital carried out approximately 1300 joint replacements.
In 108 Hospital Hanoi, joint replacement surgeries are considered to be a luxury for both patients and surgeons, and only patients with good life conditions can afford these surgeries”.
The charity trip in March of this year consisted of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Medical Doctors, Scrub Nurses, Anaesthetic nurses, Recovery Nurses, ward nurses, physiotherapists, CSSD staff, administrators, general helpers, engineers, and translators were all part of the travelling team.
The team represented forty-one medical organisations from West Kerry Community Hospital to Saint Vincent’s Private Hospital in Melbourne.
Dr Dung, who is the Head of Orthopaedic Surgery in Hospital 108, said, “The presence of OW Ireland has changed the Joint Replacement surgeries not only in 108 Hospital but all over Vietnam”.
history
Operation Walk was set up in 1996 by Dr. Larry Dorr, Los Angeles, and has expanded to form 15 separate chapters in North America. The next stage in the development of the organisation was to develop an international group, and to this end, Operation Walk Ireland was set up in 2016.
The Irish team partnered with Operation Walk Chicago in 2016, under the direction of Dr. David Stulberg and performed Operation Walk's first International joint mission in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Operation Walk Ireland returned to Hanoi in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, no mission in 2020, 2021 or 2022 took place.
In 2019, Operation Walk Ireland carried out the organisation's first-ever back-to-back mission, where two full teams travelled to Hanoi and carried out surgeries for ten days.
Unit 28B,
+353 (0) 93 52467
