The Need Is Great

Imagine you have developed arthritis of the hip or knee. At first, you push through the pain. Later, the pain becomes excruciating. You have pain with every step. Your leg feels like it will no longer support you. You are awakened every night with pain.  You start to walk slower and slower. You climb stairs with difficulty, cannot stand for more than 10 minutes, and are increasingly unable to care for your family or work because of pain. Every step feels like a nail is being driven through your joint.

On top of all that, you live in a poor community, where your inability to walk means you cannot work to elevate your family from the cycle of poverty. The future holds little promise for you because your doctor has neither the knowledge nor the tools to help you. You do not have the money to seek the medical care that you so desperately need.

Then, you learn that a team of surgeons is coming to your city, where they will spend over a week operating on people like you.  Within a day of surgery you will walk for the first time in years.  You laugh and cry, alongside your family, your doctor, your nurses, and your physical therapists.  Once again, you are able to work and help support your family and community.  You are free of pain.

Osteoarthritis is widespread, with significant individual and societal impact.  For example, about one in seven adults have symptomatic hip or knee osteoarthritis. Hip and knee replacements are remarkable surgeries — consistently reducing pain and restoring patients to active and functional lives. Total joint replacement, however, is an expensive, resource-intensive operative procedure requiring skilled surgical teams and facilities. 

Despite the cost, these surgeries have been repeatedly shown to be among the most cost-effective surgical procedures available. Because of their expense, unfortunately, joint replacements remain rare in low-resource communities. Yet the need for these surgeries in poor communities is especially great. Rates of arthritis and disability are the highest in patients in lower socioeconomic classes — particularly since these individuals are more likely to work in jobs requiring manual labor.

Through partnering with health care providers and with our industry partners, Operation Walk Chicago can provide patients in need access to this life-changing, cost-effective surgery, with the goal of transferring this technology to local providers so that they can continue this work long after Operation Walk Chicago projects are completed.