Orthopedists Recommend Replace Diseased Joints.
Millions of Americans encounter commonplace with degenerative, painful and crippling knee or hip arthritis, or similar chronic conditions that can round the simplest task into an ordeal. Fortunately, for those immobilized by their disease, hope exists in the form of knee or informed replacement, long considered the best shot at improving quality of life. The hitch: a prohibitory price tag. "Unfortunately, I've lost three jobs due to downsizing since 2006," said 51-year prehistoric Susan Murray, a Freehold, NJ, resident.
Murray has been combating a connective network disease that has progressively ravaged her knees. "And about six months ago I wasted my health coverage. I just could no longer afford to pay my bills and also keep up with my insurance payments". So in the face an illness that leaves her cane-dependent and in constant pain, the single mother of three had no situation to pay the $50000 to $60000 average out-of-pocket cost for both surgical and postsurgical care.
Enter Operation Walk USA (OWUSA). According to OWUSA, the program was launched in 2011 as an annual nationwide toil to supply joint replacement surgery at zero cost for uninsured men and women for whom such expenses are out of reach. The pep is an outgrowth of the internationally focused Operation Walk, which since 1996 has provided allowed surgery to more than 6000 patients around the world, according to an OWUSA news release.
OWUSA initially solicited doctors and hospitals to volunteer their services one age each December to surgically break in in the lives of American patients in need. This year the effort has expanded greatly, as 120 orthopedic surgeons joined forces with 70 hospitals in 32 states to make connection surgery to 230 patients spanning the course of a full week in December. "With millions of family affected, we're trying to reach out to those who are underserved," said Dr Giles Scuderi, an OWUSA organizer and orthopedic surgeon.
The knee arthroplasty adept currently serves as blemish president of the orthopedic service line at North Shore LIJ Health System, an OWUSA partaker based in the greater New York City region. "Now by underserved we're remarkably talking about 'population USA'. That is, everyday people in our communities, our colleagues, our friends, rank and file who lost their insurance for whatever reason. Maybe they had a job that they could no longer put on because of their illness, and so lost insurance, and couldn't get it again because of a pre-existing condition.