HFI orthopaedic surgical team on outreach

We are deeply grateful for Dr. Tim Browne and Dr. Toney Russell, orthopaedic surgeons who serve on our Hope Force International medical advisory board. Along with their wives, Julie Browne and Gina Russell (also healthcare professionals), they have led the charge for HFI’s medical efforts over the past several years.

Dr. Tim Browne recently provided some information that helps convey just how vitally important the healing ministry of  orthopaedic missions is to bruised and hurting people around the world.

“The global burden of trauma is now being recognized as one of the most significant (and growing) areas of concern and need. The World Health Organization reported in 2001 that injuries killed 5.1 million people and accounted for 12% of the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost worldwide, representing more loss of life caused by tuberculosis, diarrhea and malaria combined. It was twice as much as that lost to either HIV or cancer. The leading cause of death in low and middle-income countries among people ages five to forty-five is injury, and the leading cause of disease burden among children between the ages of five and fourteen results from falls, followed by road-traffic injuries. For each person who dies from trauma, three to eight more are permanently disabled. Injury presently accounts for 12% of the global burden of disease and is predicted to increase to 20% by the year 2020.”

Much of the death and disability from injury is attributable to absent or inadequate surgical care. This obviously is multifactoral, but includes the lack of equipment/implants to care for the injured patient. This is where companies can make a monumental difference. A donated implant to fix a bone can literally mean the difference between life and death, and especially the difference between a life of disability or a life restored.”


Very recently, Hope Force had the opportunity to ship a large amount of implants to Tenwek Hospital in the western highlands of Kenya. Tenwek is a missions hospital serving the poorest of Kenya’s poor, addressing a huge volume of  trauma.  Smith and Nephew, one of the world’s largest producers of  orthopaedic supplies, has honored Hope Force International by designating our agency to receive the company's surplus supplies.  As a result, we had the privilege of shipping a significant amount of  supplies to Tenwek in the third quarter of 2009.


Dr. Dan Galat is a recent Mayo graduate and volunteer in the hospital, and shared in his blog about this wonderful project: 

“Recently, the Tenwek  Department received a huge donation of orthopedic implants, sent by a group called Hope Force International. Several folks from different areas of the country rendezvoused in Memphis, Tennessee to pack two pallets of a board assortment of supplies: nails, screws, plates (in total 800 lbs of equipment!), to be used for the orthopedic care of the people in this poor region of Kenya.   Amazingly, Fed-Ex air freighted the pallets free of charge….

Just yesterday, we used one of the [orthpaedic] nails…for an elderly woman with a fracture of her femur…. now that the fracture is stabilized, she will be able to move without pain.”

(Pictured above -- Hope Force inventory team: Dr. Toney and Gina Russell and Julie Browne, foreground (all members of the HFI medical advisory board) and HFI staff with donated supplies from Smith & Nephew.  Below:  Julie Browne and Gina Russell sorting inventory during orthopaedic outreach.)