Operation Walk Freedom to Move carries out missions with a singular purpose: create movement.
Since our humble beginnings, we’ve made a difference in the lives of dozens of patients who would not otherwise have access to orthopedic care. |
ILAC Mission Patients and Staff
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Our medical teams provide orthopedic surgeries to those needing life-improving procedures, ensuring that they have the ability to work, move, and engage in life. They also pass on the knowledge and expertise to local medical staff so that they can perform the same life-changing operations long after Freedom to Move has returned home.
Each year in January several medical mission team members travel to Creighton University’s Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC ) on the island of the Dominican Republic/Haiti for an Orthopaedic Surgical Mission trip. The ILAC Mission was founded in Santiago, D.R. in the 1970’s by Father Ernesto Travieso as an international Christian collaborative healthcare and educational organization.
ILAC is a 501(c)(3) organization deeply entrenched with the people of the island and their culture. Through the years many healthcare professionals have volunteered their time and talent to serve the indigent patients of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The ILAC Mission has grown in size and sophistication, thanks to a committed Board of Directors, hours of volunteer work and private philanthropic giving.
ILAC is a 501(c)(3) organization deeply entrenched with the people of the island and their culture. Through the years many healthcare professionals have volunteered their time and talent to serve the indigent patients of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The ILAC Mission has grown in size and sophistication, thanks to a committed Board of Directors, hours of volunteer work and private philanthropic giving.
The ILAC Compound now includes a church, cafeteria, administrative offices, dormitory, clinic, pharmacy and a three-operating room surgery center with recovery area. The ILAC Mission’s community based outreach program accesses 130 remote villages throughout the Dominican Republic. In the winter of 2005, our medical school classmate, Dr. John Staeheli put together the original team of volunteer surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, O.R. technicians and Peace Corps translators to begin treating Orthopaedic patients at the ILAC surgery center and clinic.
Our Program continues to support Orthopaedic Resident Trauma education and patient care at Cabral y Baez, a public hospital in Santiago. We have provided their Orthopaedic Department free surgical implants through Surgical Implant Generation network (SIGN). Since 2003, the SIGN Program has provided over 1000 intramedullary nails for trauma care at this urban Santiago Trauma Hospital. Several OTA members have visited lending their teaching/surgical expertise to the residency.
Our Program continues to support Orthopaedic Resident Trauma education and patient care at Cabral y Baez, a public hospital in Santiago. We have provided their Orthopaedic Department free surgical implants through Surgical Implant Generation network (SIGN). Since 2003, the SIGN Program has provided over 1000 intramedullary nails for trauma care at this urban Santiago Trauma Hospital. Several OTA members have visited lending their teaching/surgical expertise to the residency.
In 2009, Dr. Paul Duwelius & Dr. John Tessier secured the opportunity to utilize the modern Juan Bosch Traumatology Hospital to perform adult reconstructive surgery in nearby, LaVega. We interface with their Orthopaedic residency typically 10-15 Dominican Orthopaedic attending surgeons and residents. Collectively at the three institutions we annually perform 90-120 cases and provided several hundred Orthopaedic evaluations staggered over a 2.5 week period. Our not-for-profit organization, Operation Walk- Freedom to Move is part of a global Orthopaedic Surgery Out-Reach Program that provides life changing reconstructive surgery to crippled, indigent people all over the world.
Two separate USA physical therapy teams visit each spring to compliment the Dominican caregivers and physical therapists who work with our post-operative patients. Seven American Orthopaedic Surgeons have made a long-term personal commitment to provide medical education and surgical training for Dominican Orthopaedic doctors. Our succession plan is to raise the bar of Orthopaedic health care for the island, so ultimately the island’s physicians and allied care providers can sustain care at a quality level.
Our 2010 mission coincided with the Haitian earthquake. The aftermath affected us all in a variety of ways. The Dominican Republic and Haiti are two countries on one island who share a need for care. Now, more than ever, there will be a generation of victims with crippling deformities and amputations, who will require Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation services for years to come.
We are very optimistic about the future of our mission project as it has brought together a collaborative team of gifted individuals from all over the US to share their talents with the Dominican nurses, physicians and therapists. The challenges we face, though, continue, including:
Medical professionals need ongoing training to provide orthopedic care for their local patients.
Get a first-hand account of the inspiring work and learn how you can give the freedom to move.
Medical professionals need ongoing training to provide orthopedic care for their local patients.
- Basic services like electrical power for operating rooms are unreliable and need to be provided for on each trip.
- Patients in poor and rural areas are unable to receive care because of lack of transportation and funds to pay for their care.
- Medical facilities have shortages of the supplies necessary to give appropriate care, such as antibiotics.
Get a first-hand account of the inspiring work and learn how you can give the freedom to move.
