November 2023 Santiago Dominican Republic ILAC Trip Our first set back was encountered before the trip when it became apparent that the container would not clear customs in time. However, Mary Lou Collins, our equipment coordinator came to our rescue by reminding us that all sent in this year’s container was for next year. This […]
We are proud to announce that in October 2023, HRFU’s Founder and long-standing President, Charles J. Filipi, MD, FACS, received the American College of Surgeons/Pfizer Surgical Humanitarian Award. Dr. Filipi was recognized for his 20 years of humanitarian service: providing hernia repair services and encouraging others to volunteer their services in underdeveloped nations. Dr. Filipi […]
We carried out a mission at the Carlos Chagas State Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 12th and 13th, 2023. We operated on 23 adult patients with 30 hernias. We had no intra-operative complications nor in the follow-up until the postoperative thirtieth. We had six trainers and trained 6 local surgeons. The meshes […]
November 2022 Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Trip This was our first trip to Santo Domingo. It was conducted with the Foundation for Peace, a well-established large non-profit based in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. They are focused primarily on health care, education and community partnerships. A small US team arrived but there were some authorization […]
November 2022 Santiago Dominican Republic ILAC Trip This was our first trip back to ILAC since 2019. An entire team was recruited and all three operating rooms were used. One for pediatric hernia surgery, another for the more complicated adult patients requiring a general anesthetic and the third for hernia patients requiring only local anesthesia […]
April 2022 Santiago Dominican Republic ILAC Trip After a pandemic hernia trip hiatus, the first Hernia Help US staff based trip was to the Dominican Republic. Covid 19 restrictions were in place with staff having a preliminary Covid test, all staff were fully vaccinated and patients all had a rapid test the day before surgery. […]