This is my second year making this invaluable trip to Hanoi, Vietnam in March 2018 as part of a team to provide knee and hip replacements to those who otherwise would not be able to afford this life changing treatment!

Cause Description:
We provide hip and knee replacements for people with advanced arthritis in developing countries. Operation walk ireland is at ground level working to educate Vietnamese surgeons, Anaesthetists, nurses and physiotherapists in Vietnam about joint replacement. We leverage our strong connection with colleagues in the United States as we grow our organisation.

Overview:
The first independent operation walk Ireland mission will take place in May of this year. (I don’t think this is right) Vietnam is a country of 93 million people who have rapidly improved their prosperity in recent times. Over the last 20 years the percentage of the population classified as “in poverty” has fallen from 53% to 13% and life expectancy is rising rapidly! This creates a population with a rapidly increasing demand for joint replacement. We have estimated that as development proceeds, Vietnam will reach an annual demand for hip and knee replacements of 260,000 annually.

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 of the development of the organisation is to make it an international group and to this end, Operation Walk Ireland was set up last year. The Irish team partnered with Operation Walk Chicago, under the direction of Dr. David Stulberg last year to perform Operation Walk’s first international joint mission in Hanoi, Vietnam. This mission performed 86 hip and knee replacements in 5 days and engaged in a surgical educational program with the Vietnamese Orthopaedic surgeons.