Two New Jersey-based orthopedic surgeons have partnered with a national initiative to give patients the gift of knee replacements for the holidays.
Operation Walk is a volunteer medical organization that provides "the gift of mobility" through joint replacement surgeries at no cost for patients in the U.S. and globally. It was founded in 1996 by orthopedic surgeon Lawrence Dorr, MD.
Volunteers spend time, at an estimated value of $500,000, while the organization receives implants, surgical materials, medications and recovery donations from American companies valued at about $1 million annually.
David Chalnick, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Seaview Orthopaedics who serves as medical director of the joint replacement surgery program at Long Branch, N.J.-based Monmouth Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, and Joel Fechisin, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Seaview Orthopaedics and MMC, are just two of the surgeons working with the program to help provide access to the underserved.
"Operation Walk is a great charitable medical organization that helps people who have hip and knee arthritis get joint replacements who don't have insurance and improves their mobility and quality of life," Dr. Chalnick told Becker's. "It's a great opportunity to help people, particularly this time of year. Giving the gift of joint replacements. We both just did some surgeries last week and our patients were extremely grateful and happy with the results."
RWJBarnabas Health is the only New Jersey-based partner of Operation Walk for the 2024 season.
Through the program, Drs. Chalnick and Fechisin provided knee replacements for retired school administrator and Nigerian native Elizabeth Alaribe and Miadea Ganda.
This was Ms. Alaribe's second knee replacement through the charitable organization.
"[For] the patient I assisted this year, I had already performed a joint replacement on last year. She recovered quite well from her left total knee replacement back in December 2023, and in her postoperative appointment, she said she couldn't wait to get her other side done," Dr. Fechisin told Becker's. "I was more than happy to jump at the opportunity to assist this year again."
Outside of Operation Walk, MMC and its surgeons strive to continue giving back to their community year round.
"Operation Walk is a unique program that's once a year to help patients without insurance. We continue to help patients through our clinic who do have insurance, but have insurance that may not have in-network providers locally. We see them in the clinic with our residents, but this is somewhat unique to MMC," Dr. Chalnick said.
Heading into 2025, following this year's partnership, both physicians aim to continue zeroing in on patient care, striving to provide the best outcomes possible.
"We have the same care goals every year, we try to provide great care to patients and help them improve the quality of their lives," Dr. Chalnick said.
"We strive for excellence in care every day and year to year. We learn from each individual patient and try to tailor care that is specific to each patient to give them the best outcomes," Dr. Fechisin reiterated.
Moving forward, both surgeons hope to continue providing low-cost care for local patients.
"We've helped patients with no other alternatives, and we have the ability to give them this wonderful gift that they are extremely happy and appreciative for," Dr. Chalnick said. "Hopefully, we can continue doing this in the future."