Todd Swanson Las Vegas Donates Surgeries to Operation Walk Medical Mission
Todd Swanson, Las Vegas (http://www.SwansonHipAndKnee.com), donated his orthopedic skills in joint replacement surgery to the Operation Walk Medical Mission on a trip to Vietnam to perform surgeries for the underprivileged.
Online, May 12, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Las Vegas, NV - Todd Swanson, Las Vegas (http://www.SwansonHipAndKnee.com), donated his orthopedic skills in total mini-hip and mini-knee replacement to Operation Walk, a medical mission that went to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in January to perform surgeries on 62 underprivileged patients.
Operation Walk is a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Larry Dorr in 1995 to allow surgeons to go into underserved parts of the world and perform hip and knee replacement surgeries on patients who would otherwise not be able to receive these treatments. Currently, there are nine sites throughout North America who assemble medical teams to travel to various parts of the world to perform hip and
knee replacements in underserved areas.
"I had been looking for a way to give back to society that would utilize my expertise as an orthopedic hip and knee surgeon. I wanted to do a medical mission to an underserved part of the world and was excited to learn about Operation Walk. It was exactly what I had been searching for," says Todd V Swanson, MD, director of the Desert Orthopaedic Research Foundation.
On January 13th, Dr. Swanson and his scrub nurse, Lois, along with 61 other volunteers headed to the Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopedics in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The volunteer medical staff arrived to find a mountain of donated medical supplies in the storage room. Zimmer Orthopedics donated the implants to be used in the surgeries, and various entities donated the other supplies needed for the surgeries.
The mission hit the ground running, and on the first day 80 underprivileged patients were pre-screened for the surgeries. Of the 80, 62 arthritic hips and knees were selected as suitable candidates for surgery and at 6 p.m. on day four, the 62nd surgery was completed.
The mission had a two-fold purpose. The first purpose was the treatment of the underprivileged patients to restore their ability to walk pain-free. The second purpose was to work closely with the Vietnamese medical providers to train them in the techniques and methods used in the United States for total joint replacements leaving behind the capability for the treatment of even more patients.
For a more detailed account of Dr. Swanson's trip with Operation Walk to Vietnam, visit his blog at http://toddswanson.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/operation-walk-mission-110/.
Todd Swanson, Las Vegas (http://www.SwansonHipAndKnee.com), is the director of the Desert Orthopaedic Research Foundation and is one of the country's leading minimally invasive Total Joint Replacement surgeons. Since 1997 he has performed over 3,000 minimally invasive total hip and knee procedures and has traveled the world teaching this new technique to other surgeons. Dr. Swanson is also the Director of the Desert Orthopaedic Center Adult Reconstruction Fellowship Training Program in Las Vegas.
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Tags: Dr. Larry Dorr, Dr. Todd Swanson Las Vegas, hip prosthesis, hip replacement, joint replacement, mini total hip replacement, mini-stem hip, Operation Walk Medical Mission, Orthopaedic surgeon, Todd Swanson Las Vegas