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When E-Space's Tim Burke isn’t working on company mergers and acquisitions or new sales engagements, he spends his time volunteering to help the global community. Most recently, Tim jumped at the opportunity to help long-time friend and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bill O’Connor, on a mission to Ghana with the nonprofit organization Operation Walk.
An all-volunteer medical humanitarian organization, Operation Walk provides the gift of mobility through life-changing joint replacement surgeries at no cost for those in need. Operation Walk helps individuals globally, but the specific mission Tim assisted with took him to Africa this past December.
As a non-medical volunteer, how could Tim assist? With his extensive background and experience in communications, he was able to set up a system to enable real-time communications between doctors, local staff and volunteers.
“We worked at a rural hospital in a very remote area with limited communications,” Tim said. “In the past they had physical runners communicate between the doctors and the staff working at an open-air hospital that was quite spread out. For my part, I helped set up a push-to-talk walkie-talkie system to make it easier for faster communications to occur between all team members.”
To capture the scope of the project and work, Tim and the team conducted several video interviews with team members as well as patients before and after their surgeries, which was later compiled into a short video.
In all, this specific mission enabled 130 patients to be screened, resulting in 92 joints being replaced over the course of four days. It took four operating rooms, each with two surgeons, an anesthesiologist and three nurses to perform the procedures.
“It was an enormously rewarding experience to watch patients, many of whom could barely walk, emerge from surgery with a new lease on life. I am incredibly proud to have participated in this mission, and while I was part of the communications team – I see how the total mission has helped impact the lives of many within the community.”
According to the nonprofit’s website, Operation Walk has performed hip and knee replacement surgeries for more than 17,000 people in 25 countries since it was formed in 1996 by Dr. Lawrence D. Door.
Tim added, “It was truly an honor to partake in a volunteer effort where doctors, nurses and other staff donated their time, along with device manufacturers who donated equipment and implants — all for a good cause.”
E-Space encourages team members to explore their passions, and in Tim’s case, helping Operation Walk was an important opportunity. Heplans to make the trip again next December — and in the future, there may even be opportunities to leverage the connectivity solutions offered by E-Space.
