Arthritic man gifted life-changing knee replacement surgery
An El Paso man is getting life changing surgery tomorrow thanks to Operation HOPE and Destiny Church.
Marcelo Guerrero, the 58-year-old arthritis patient has been left in pain and disabled from the disease for years.
His bones rubbing against each other have left him in pain, so much so that Sunday he couldn’t make it to Destiny Church where his surgery was announced.
Guerrero needs a walker to get around, but Monday he’ll be getting the surgery he needs thanks to months of work by Operation HOPE.
The surgery free of charge
“Finally we ended up at this hospital, spoke to them, and they agreed after two weeks to give the facility, the OR, the team, the anesthesiologist, nurses and everybody,” said Angel Gomez, of Operation HOPE.
“It was instantly a ‘yes, how can we help?’So, we brought the gentleman in, evaluated him. He clearly has severe, severe, crippling, debilitating arthritis, deformities, and needs surgery desperately,” said Dr. Keith Johnson, the orthopedic surgeon who will do the surgery.
Guerrero’s knees will both be replaced, and he won’t have to pay anything. Operation HOPE and Destiny Church worked for two months to arrange the surgery.
The services and new knees are all being gifted by doctors and and an area hospital.
Guerrero works as a restaurant manager and hasn’t let his arthritis stop him.
The physical therapy could last more than a month, but it’ll begin with him walking the same day.
“Believe it or not he’ll walk the day of surgery. We’ll do the surgery in the morning and he’ll walk in the afternoon. In a day or two he’ll be walking probably 300 feet which is the length of a football field,” Thomson said.
‘He wants to get back to work right away, and as you heard Dr. Johnson say, he will get back to work,” Gomez said.
“Therapy starts then, but the impact of the surgery will be felt immediately,” Thomson said.
The team needed for this treatment will be at least six people in the OR and a dozen involved in the recovery.
