Dr. Jerry Engh Receives 2018 AAHKS Humanitarian Award
Dallas, November 2, 2018 — Gerard “Jerry” A. Engh, MD has been selected as the 2018 American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Humanitarian Award recipient. Dr. Engh founded Operation Walk Virginia in 2006, which has provided hip and knee replacements to the underserved in Managua, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama and Boliva. This chapter was one of the first to branch off from the Operation Walk chapter in Los Angeles founded by Lawrence D. Dorr, MD. Dr. Engh routinely brought along guest surgeons to his mission trips, and many have since gone on to establish their own chapters and successful Operation Walk missions.
Part of Dr. Engh’s vision is to bring doctors from the host countries to the United States to learn by observing the surgical techniques involved in knee and hip replacement. The doctors are then be able to take these skills back to their own country – perpetuating the help for years to come.
After graduating from Davidson College, Dr. Engh attended medical school at the University of Virginia. Following an internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, he spent two years as a major in the Army Medical Corps. He then joined his brother working at The Anderson Orthopaedic Clinic in Virginia, which had been founded by his father, Otto Anderson Engh. Dr. Engh retired from the practice in 2013.
In recognition of Dr. Engh’s contribution to medical missions around the world, an Operation Walk Virginia board member remarked, “He deserves the AAHKS Humanitarian Award because of the amount of people he has touched in a positive way. From his patients at the Anderson clinic, to the fellows he has trained and all their patients, to his family, to his staff and now to patients across the globe. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who are better off because Dr. Jerry is in this world. We should all strive to leave such a positive mark on this planet.”
The AAHKS Humanitarian Award recognizes AAHKS members who have distinguished themselves by providing humanitarian medical services and programs with a significant focus on musculoskeletal diseases and trauma including the hip and knee in the United States or abroad.
Nominations for the 2019 AAHKS Humanitarian Award are now being accepted through April 15, 2019 at www.AAHKS.org/Humanitarian.
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About the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons:
Established in 1991, the mission of AAHKS is to advance hip and knee patient care through education, advocacy and research. AAHKS has a membership of over 4,000 surgeons and other hip and knee health care professionals.
Contact:
Denise Smith Rodd
drodd@aahks.org