Patient Experiences

READ THEIR STORIES
We invite you to discover some of our patients' amazing experiences by clicking on the stories below.

A Gentleman Named Sebastian
As told by Kathy Jones, RN

Of all the awesome experiences we encounter in our lives, I can easily say for me that being a member of Operation Walk has been the most rewarding! And my experience with Sebastian Manuel stands out in my heart as one of the most treasured of those memories.

Sebastian Manuel was one of the men in a room I was overseeing with seven people who had waited many years for a joint replacement. His surgery wasn't scheduled until the fourth and final day. He needed both hips replaced and had difficulty walking even short distances in his hospital room, but I never heard one word of complaint from him.

In the meantime, he spent each day assisting his roommates. Sebastian became my personal interpreter while I was there. He was stoic and always smiling; the needs of his friends came first. There were a couple of times when there were difficulties with other patients. Sebastian would clamor from his bed and hobble over to assist me with teaching and translation.

One of his final statements to me as we said goodbye was "Oh my, I am so blessed and cannot thank this group enough. I pray to have my second hip to be done somehow next year. But even now I can go home and care for my wife and children as I would like to." A true gentleman!