In 2006, Charlene Goggin, Director of H&D's Your Healthy Spine program, mentioned that a mentor of hers, Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, was looking for a physical therapist to accompany him on a two-week trip to Ghana.
Dr. Boachie is the founder of FOCOS whose aim is to provide complex orthopedic and spine care to underserved communities. His birth country of Ghana has a dramatic need for such care - there are just 18 orthopedic surgeons for Ghana's 15 million people! (By contrast, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, there are 20,000 orthopedic surgeons in the US.)
So for two 2-week periods last year, H&D sent Tonya Juge, PT down to Ghana with Dr. Boachie and his team of surgeons, nurses, aides and assistants. And then this year, from April 28 through May 12th, H&D's Tom Grunewald, PT was sent along. Below are reflections Tom and Tonya's reflections from their trips...
