Changing Lives...One Step at a Time

Every year, for 17 years, a team of healthcare professionals has been traveling to Cuenca on a medical-dental humanitarian mission to provide free hip and knee replacement surgery to poor adult Ecuadoreans, surgery for children with dislocated hips and club feet, and dental care to hundreds of children in rural schools. The team leader of Operation Esperanza (Operation Hope), as it is called, is orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Greidanus, a friend of the Running Room who recently completed his 50th marathon. Operation Esperanza is supported by a number of organizations and many private donors. The Running Room has partnered with Operation Esperanza for more than a decade, donating 40 to 50 pairs of shoes each year for both patients and young Ecuadorean athletes.

 

The people helped by Operation Esperanza are the poorest of the poor, for whom medicine and surgery are either unavailable or unaffordable. As well as doing surgery and providing dental care, Operation Esperanza is also involved in education and prevention: teaching and mentoring local surgeons in current orthopedic practices; train- ing midwives and physicians how to examine newborns for hip dysplasia; and trying to change the way mothers traditionally swaddle and carry their babies with their legs together (which is a factor in the high incidence of dislocated hips in children). Significant fundraising is done before- hand to purchase medical supplies as well as the hip and knee prostheses that cost approximately $2000 each.

 

 

Many team members have been a part of Operation Esperanza for a long time, request- ing vacation time a year in advance to ensure that they can go. One nurse even planned her wedding around the date of the mission. As one of the operating room nurses put it, “It’s Miriam who reminds me of why we do this work.”

 

When Miriam first came to the hospital screening clinic, she was 29 years old and could hardly move. Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, she had not walked for four years and needed to be lifted onto the examining table by her brother. “I want to walk again,” she said. “I want to study again. I want to dance again—to salsa.”

 

Miriam’s surgery was done over a two-year period. During the first operation, her right hip and knee were replaced. The following year, her left hip and knee were replaced. The journey through surgery and rehabilitation was not easy, but Miriam never wavered in her goal to walk and dance again. The results were pro- found. Not only can Miriam dance, she also works full-time as a secretary, able to support herself and her extended family. In gratitude, Miriam returns every year to work as translator for Operation Esperanza, the team that helped make her dream come true.

 

Equally powerful is the story of Susanna, a nine-year-old girl with a severe club foot who was discovered at one of the rural schools. When a pediatric surgeon agreed to help, finding her again proved difficult because Susanna lived in a remote area, in a shack with no running water where she and her siblings were being raised by their grandmother. To make a long story short, the following year Susanna received corrective surgery and was given a pair of shoes from the Running Room.

 

The team members work hard, long hours, yet they agree that they receive more than they give. “As much as the patients are blessed, I am blessed even more,” says operating room nurse Lisa Watson, “by the love of the patients and the fulfillment of seeing them after (surgery).” Physiotherapist Mark Labrentz adds: “to see the results, to be a part of helping change a person’s life... it’s so rewarding.

 

It’s humbling.” Working with Operation Esperanza caused nurse Susan Mann to reflect about her life in North America. “We are surrounded by plenty. We are so blessed. We need to use some of this to give back to those in need.” Operating room charge nurse Cari Noelck put it this way: “It’s a lot of work, but it’s re-energizing. I always come back with a new appreciation for
my life.”

 

Pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Peter Farran is also a veteran team member. Why does he keep returning to Cuenca? “For me, it is a positive experience every year,” he says. “I feel as if I am giving back some of what life has blessed me with. I see the difference we make for a few young souls. I see the deep appreciation in their parents’ eyes. I feel good sharing skills with Ecuadorian doctors. I learn from the impoverished mountain people that material possessions are not that important, but that health really is. I reunite every year with some very good Ecuadorian friends.” Farran’s wife, Wanda, offers several reasons for her continuing commitment to Operation Esperanza. “Sometimes it's the bravery of a parent entrusting a child to our care, or the smile on a child's face at the end of a procedure. And then, a year later, the follow-up with that child who previously came in on a walker, and is now able to walk and play like other children. Who wouldn't come back to all of this?”