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Meet WalkStrong
Africa's Founders

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Greg Stocks, MD

Greg Stocks is an orthopedic surgeon in Houston, Texas. He has led orthopedic mission teams to the West Bank of Palestine with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund  from 2012 to 2016. He found that the surgeons in Ramallah were eager to learn arthroplasty techniques and had adequate facilities to perform them. 

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A door opened for Dr. Stocks to travel with a mission team from his church to Maua Methodist Hospital in Kenya in 2018. There he learned about an organization called PAACS, the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons. The founders of PAACS recognized the need to train African surgeons to high standards to stay in Africa. 

 

While visiting Maua and later Tenwek Hospital, Dr. Stocks was able to perform several arthroplasty surgeries, but only for those with greater resources than the typical Kenyan. While discussing this need with Dr. Christie and upon learning about the WSF, Dr. Stocks' commitment to WSA was born.

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Michael Chrisite, MD, MPH

Dr. Christie was honored with the Humanitarian Award in November of 2020 by the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, the largest organization of its kind in the US.

 

Dr. Christie’s vision for the WSF started with a shift in the mindset of Missionary Orthopedic Arthroplasty Surgeons. The former mindset is illustrated by Operation Walk, an organization that brings a team of Arthroplasty surgeons with their supporting staff to a place of need around the world to perform hip and knee replacements. A visit by an Operation Walk team results in a significantly improved quality of life for many recipients of replacements and their families—perhaps 20 or more over a week period. The cost of the mission trip could exceed $500,000 donated by the surgeons, implant manufacturers and others.

 

The shift is to devote those resources to training local orthopedic surgeons how to successfully perform hip and knee replacement surgery and provide them with high-quality, low-cost implants to allow hundreds of patients in each location of need life-changing surgery year after year. Teach them to fish and provide them with the equipment they need to catch fish.

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While Dan Galat attended seminary, he felt God’s call to medical mission work and started medical school right after completing seminary. In 2008 Dan finished his orthopedic residency at Mayo Clinic and brought his family to Tenwek Hospital where he served as a full-time missionary orthopedic surgeon with PAACS. During his 10 years serving in Kenya, he also taught and provided orthopedic care for Kenyans at Kijabe Hospital.

 

Due to his love for hip and knee arthroplasty, Dr. Galat returned to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale to complete an additional year of specialized training in hip and knee arthroplasty. During his time in Africa, Dr. Galat had become highly respected as a selfless and capable leader in orthopedics for PAACS.

 

He continues to serve as the PAACS Orthopedics Program Administrator, providing direction, encouragement, recruitment, and financial support for the (currently) three PAACS ortho sites and its more than 20 residents. Dan was eager to be a part of the WSA effort and build on the strong foundation he has helped develop in Africa.

Dan Galat, MD

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