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Make a Gift:
 Patient ExperiencesREAD THEIR STORIES  Abdy's Journey The very last day of our 2007 trip to Panama, making our final rounds, a breathless man came bounding up the stairs into the Santo Tomas Hospital. With tears in his eyes, he wrapped his arms around Dr. Todd Miner, overcome with relief that he had made it in time to see us. During a political rally in the upheaval of Panama in the early 1980's, Abdy, just a teenager, received a gunshot wound to his hip. He hobbled in pain, carrying the bullet in his hip for twenty-five years! On our mission last April, Abdy finally received his total hip replacement. Word had traveled to his hometown that Operation Walk was back. So Abdy did everything he could to make it to the hospital while our team was still there. The sheer joy of his freedom from pain was so great that he wanted to find some means to return to Panama City. He traveled several days via bus and on foot, to tell us "thank you" and to demonstrate to us how well he could walk. After hugs and smiles, captured on camera, Dr. Miner promised to send a copy of the photos to Abdy. But, when asked how to reach him, he gave a puzzled look. He explained, through an interpreter, that he did not have a street address, he did not have a mailbox, and he had no phone. This is just the way it is. Abdy may never see the photos, but when he walks by a window or stands in front of a mirror he sees himself standing, walking and running pain free at last. 
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