Each year, our team of health care professionals and support personnel travel to Nicaragua to deliver care through short-term medical mission trips that, strive to reach those who need our specialized help the most.

Hip and knee replacement surgeries are considered the most effective orthopedic surgery available, transforming lives, reducing pain and returning patients to active, pain-free lives. However, because they are costly and complex, these surgeries are inaccessible to the vast majority of patients in developing countries.
Our Nicaraguan patients are referred by host country Orthopedic Surgeons who have performed initial assessments. Further triaging and screening are done by Operation Walk physicians. Mission trips typically last one week and are organized and managed so that as many patients as possible can undergo surgery and begin their rehabilitation and recovery. During this week, the medical care of patients is the joint responsibility of in-country physicians, physiotherapists and registered nurses and their Operation Walk counterparts. This hands-on partnership assures ongoing patient care once the team has returned home. 

Each mission is a major logistical undertaking
Lists of required items (which include virtually every item from scalpel blades to prosthesis to dressings and everything in between) are refined from year to year and submitted to vendors with much of this being donated as gifts in kind. Our approach is to ask for donations and barring this, to seek the best price possible for each item. The next several weeks are spent working out the logistics of mission week such as surgical schedules, OR staffing, team transportation and accommodations, packing and shipping of equipment and medicines. We spend the better part of a year preparing for our mission with the assistance of 100% volunteer teams.

• Nicaragua Mission

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Executive Committee

• Dr. David Hedden, Chair of the Board
• Al Koop, Vice President
• Judd Ekdahl, Treasurer
• Sharon Jillie, Secretary
• Shelley Thiessen, Secretary

Directors

• Julie Ames, Director
• Judi Bahl, Director
• Sue Barkman, Director
• John Embril
• Brian Meronek, QC , Director
• Chandra Schultz, Director
• Dan Sutherland, Director
• James Vernon, Director
• Chandra Schultz, Director
• Danalyn Vasquez,. Director
• Claudio Videtto, Director
• Kelvin Williamson, Director

Gala Committee

• Julie Ames
• Judi Bahl
• Sue Barkman
• Angela Clarkson
• Patricia Hedden
• Sharon Jillie
• Joyce Osodo
• Chandra Schultz
• Shelley Thiessen
• Danalyn Vasquez
• with support from the Concordia Foundation Staff

Legal and Financial

• Legal Counsel: DD West LLP
• Brian Derksen, GTP, auditors
• Steinbach Credit Union

Who We Are

Operation Walk is a not-for-profit, volunteer medical service organization whose purpose is to provide surgical treatments to patients who live in developing countries and have little or no access to care for arthritis or other debilitating bone and joint diseases. 

The first Operation Walk team was started in Los Angeles by Dr. Larry Dorr in 1996.  Through their efforts, 13 additional mission teams have been created across Canada and the United States to provide life changing surgeries for poor patients with debilitating chronic joint pain.

Operation Walk Winnipeg began in 2011 and undertook its first mission to Managua, Nicaragua in October of 2012 under the guidance of the Operation Walk Los Angeles team.  We have returned annually as an independent mission team.  We have changed our name in 2019 to “Operation Walk Manitoba”. 

Operation Walk Manitoba consists of volunteer nurses, surgeons, physicians, physical therapists and other healthcare professionals and translators.

Operation Walk Team members have come from every hospital in Winnipeg.  The team has also expanded to include members from Brandon, Saskatoon, Kelowna, Orlando, England and Greece.

All individual and corporate donations are directed to help finance the mission of Operation Walk.

Who We Help

Nicaragua has consistently been the second to third poorest nation in the western hemisphere.  Employment is predominantly by labour and farming.  Most Nicaraguans do not have the luxury of an automobile and, at a minimum, must walk long distances to the nearest bus route to travel even modest distances.  Much of the country is mountainous, and buildings are not constructed with thought toward those with limited mobility.  For patients with hip and knee arthritis, everyday is an exercise in pain and frustration.

The patients that presented to Operation Walk are an amazing group of people.  All have been suffering with debilitating arthritis for at least 5 years with many having lived in pain for decades.  They come, supported by their families, to a group of caregivers that, for the most part, don’t speak their language and whom they have not met before.  They trust us with their bodies and their wellness and ask for our help.  For many patients, there is a sense of desperation that this is their only chance to regain their mobility and independence.

As Canadians accustomed to a fairly robust social support network, this is particularly poignant for Nicaraguans, and so much of the developing world, in that the loss of independence and mobility can easily drive a patient and their family deeper into the dark hole of poverty.

Despite or perhaps because of the adversity that these patients have experienced, they are a phenomenal group to work with.  Many walk 100-200 feet the same day as the surgery with little pain medication.

The determination and drive shown by these patients is unlike anything  seen in the developed world.  To see a patient who knows no English speaking to her healthcare team and pointing to her new knee replacement with tears rolling down her cheeks saying “Gracias, Gracias, Gracias” is a powerful and moving moment for everyone.

Leaving a Legacy

The mission of Operation Walk Manitoba is carried out in partnership with the physicians, surgeons and staff of the Roberto Calderon Hospital in Managua, Nicaragua.  This publicly-funded hospital performs approximately two joint replacements per week for indigent patients that are so impoverished that they cannot afford to pay for medical care.  The hospital also serves as a teaching hospital for Nicaraguans studying to become nurses, anaesthetists and orthopaedic surgeons.  Local students and staff are encouraged to work along side the mission team to expand their own knowledge and skills and raise the quality of the care received long after the mission team has returned home.