Dr. Lawrence Dorr to be Honored by Operation Walk, Humanitarian Organization He Founded to Perform Free Surgeries

Dr. Lawrence D. Dorr, an internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon and resident of Pasadena, will be honored by Operation Walk, the humanitarian organization he founded in 1996 to perform free implant surgeries for needy patients in the U.S. and in developing countries. Under Dr. Dorr’s leadership, Operation Walk has developed 17 surgical teams in the U.S., Canada and Ireland that have performed free surgeries for more than 10,000 people in 12 countries.

Dr. Dorr will be honored at the annual gala of Operation Walk Los Angeles slated for Saturday, October 6, 2018, at the California Club in downtown Los Angeles.

“Dr. Dorr is both a giant in his field and in the humanitarian world. As the founder and leader of Operation Walk, he has created an organization that helps thousands walk again and be productive members of their families and communities,” said Carolyn Miller, president of the Board of Directors of Operation Walk Los Angeles. “He is so deserving of this honor and we know he has legions of friends and colleagues who will want to share this special night.”

A resident of Pasadena, Dr. Dorr practices at USC Keck Hospital and is Professor of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery at USC Keck School of Medicine. He has led multiple breakthroughs in orthopedic surgery. The Dorr bone type is referenced internationally and his minimally invasive surgery and pain management programs led the change to rapid recovery techniques. His latest contribution to the field is a long-sought discovery that determines the relationship of the spinopelvic structure to cup placement in hip implant surgery. He has authored 300 scientific articles and book chapters and has conducted research through the Dorr Arthritis Institute since1994.

Operation Walk was born in 1996 after Dr. Dorr had fulfilled many international teaching invitations and decided he could be more effective by teaching in-country physicians and medical staffs while performing hip and knee surgeries on-site. Since then Dr. Dorr developed a protocol for planning and implementing these complex surgical missions in developing countries that others now follow successfully.

Dr. Dorr is a founding member and past president of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, which now has 2,500 members and is the largest organization of hip and knee replacement surgeons. He also founded and was past president of the Knee Society and the Hip Society, and is the first surgeon to be president of all three of the field’s professional entities.

In the mid-2000s Dr. Dorr began a novel writing career. His first novel, Die Once Live Twice, is a story about the transformation of medicine between the Civil War and World War II, culminating with penicillin usage. A sequel, Die Once Live Forever, was published in 2017.

Dr. Dorr graduated from Cornell College in his home state of Iowa and played both high school and college football. At the University of Iowa, while in medical school on a full tuition academic scholarship, he played rugby. After medical school he traveled to Los Angeles for an internship at Los Angeles County Hospital and was then in the Navy as a doctor for three years. He and his wife, Marilyn, who he met at the University of Iowa, live in Pasadena.