OpWalk Stories

Everyone around Luis was walking.

For his entire life, something that came so easily to other people had been one of the most difficult things he had to manage, and a constant source of frustration. Luis had acutely disfigured knees with a severe valgus deformity, or condition in which his bones angled outward (laterally) from his midline where they attached at the joint. Luis’s legs were so deformed that if he were to place a basketball between his thighs, the ball […]

José lives in Panama and until recently, had been living with pain and immobility from hip dysplasia for most of his life. As the pain had gotten progressively worse, he finally found himself using a wheelchair most of the time. It was frustrating for an otherwise healthy, strong man who loved life. Being confined to a wheelchair meant loss of freedom and inability to work.

For someone like Jose, hip dysplasia isn’t just a condition. It’s a life-changing condition because in […]

Sandra lives near San Pedro Sula Honduras, and was born with a dislocated hip. Because she grew up in a place that had little to no access to specialty healthcare, she had problems walking since she took her first steps. As she got older and more mobile, the issues only grew worse. As a child, Sandra didn’t want to go to the beach because people always stared at her, and often laughed at her. Sandra felt ashamed of how people […]

Training a Future Generation: A Cuban Medical Resident’s Knack for Orthopedics

Ernesto is 28 years old and like many other Cubans has never really been outside his country. There is no longer a travel ban that prohibits Cubans from going abroad, but visas to exit the country are still costly in a nation where the average monthly salary is around $25 per month.

When he was younger, Ernesto wanted to be a lawyer. His dad is a lawyer in Havana, […]

Living Life to Smile

Alejandra Madrid may be 86 years old but she has a lot of energy, and according to her friends and family she’s always on the go. Her life’s work was doing laundry, keeping a clean home and raising her children in the area around San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a place where violence and crime have long been pervasive. But to Alejandra, it is home. She has walked San Pedro Sula’s hills over and over during […]

Searching for Comfort in Retirement

“I want to be empowered to move around whenever I want to.”

In 2010, Estrella was finally able to retire after working for many years. She’s lived in Cuba her whole life and it would be hard for her to leave, but her daughter and son-in-law left her home country and moved to Russia several years ago. Not long after they moved, away, Estrella took a bad fall. Like many Cubans, she dealt with the […]

A Slam Dunk

He’s 71 now, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Ancelmo. He still has bright, sparkling eyes and the lingering look of youth, the result of an active lifestyle that kept his energy sustained and his body in motion. He’s played basketball almost his whole life; in fact, he was a star guard for the University of Havana’s basketball team.  Ancelmo has never been to the United States but his favorite team is the […]