Recently, Tiringo returned from Munich, after having several reconstructive surgeries by Dr. Peter Cornelius and his amazing facial surgery team. After a few days in Addis Ababa, she returned to her village to visit her family, and to bring us another patient she knows of who needs jaw surgery. Here she is, holding up a photo of herself [...]
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Feleke is a 12 year old boy from Arusi, 6 hours south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He lives in a mud house without electricity. He is the youngest of 8 sibs. His parents are farmers. They are very devoted to their Ethiopian Orthodox Christian faith. Feleke ranks #1 out of 70 students. He loves to be [...]
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Very sad to say, great friend and supporter Noel Cunningham passed away this week. Noel was a one-man engine of benevolence without borders that reached across languages, race, and oceans in order to help the most needy. We will miss him greatly. Last year, Noel sponsored an event called “A Dinner of Unconditional Love” to [...]
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BREAKING NEWS: Right now we have 21 kids in Ghana undergoing spine surgery by Dr. Boachie’s FOCOS team. We are not fully funded, and greatly appreciate contributions – from small gifts to full sponsorships of $18K per child. Detailed information is available on each patient. Click Here for detailed information about each patient, and take a look at their shining [...]
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13 patients and 1 staff member successfully left for Ghana tonight. Surgeries start next week. Rick
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“When the families showed up it was a truly great celebration with many tears and smiles.” The remaining 4 patients are soon to return as well.
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BREAKING NEWS: Next week 11 kids are leaving for Cochin, SW India for heart surgery by Dr. Krishna Kumar’s team. We still really need contributions, ranging from small gifts to full sponsorships of about $7,500 per patient. The urgency of this is shown by the fact that when we called patients to inform them they could go abroad, 2 had died [...]
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Extra special thanks to Randi Rosen and David Bloomberg, who got married in California recently. Instead of wedding gifts, they requested that guests send donations to support my work! What a great idea! Many thanks, and best wishes for a wonderful life together. – Dr. Rick Hodes
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Dr. Hodes recently caught up with Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) to film a segment on his work in Ethiopia. Pictures of Dr. Hodes in the CBN studio below:
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Warning: This article contains graphic images. Latest news: Abebech and Tiringo (pictured below) left for Munich, Germany on Monday night (8/22) to be operated on by Dr. Peter Cornelius and his amazing team of facial surgeons. Because of the severity of their deformity, we dressed them in Moslem garb for their flights. They are now undergoing evaluation. Most likely [...]
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Desta is a 16 year old girl from East Ethiopia who had poorly-treated Hodgkin’s Disease when she came to me in June, 2010. I treated her with 7 cycles of ABVD and she had a great response. Recently she came to see me. She is happily back in school, feeling great, and looking super! – [...]
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Recently I met President Girma Wolde-Giorgis, President of Ethiopia, with a delegation of Texas medical students. I told him about my work here and gave him photos of my spine patients. He showed great appreciation of my work. – Dr. Hodes
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Hello Supporters, I need a laptop-sized portable device to test pulmonary function tests. Please let me know if anyone has one for donation! – Dr. Hodes
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I am looking for neuroradiologists to help me interpret occasional MRIs and CAT scans. If you are qualified, please contact me directly at ethiopianspines@gmail.com. Please forward this message along to doctor friends and colleagues. Thanks! Dr. Rick Hodes
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Tonight these 4 girls, accompanied by 1 mom who did an amazing job in rehabilitating her daughter and our nurse, arrived back in Addis Ababa safely. They were tearfully met by at least 20 relatives. I will examine them in the coming days. They are ordered to spend tomorrow at home with their families eating injera, the national dish [...]
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Last month, Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D., President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), awarded the 2011 Dr. Bernard Heller Prize to Dr. Rick Hodes. Rabbi Ellenson said, “Dr. Rick Hodes is an American physician whose life and work embody the Talmudic teaching that ‘saving one life is like saving an entire world.’ [...]
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Prudence returned to Telluride this year, 1 year after Rick met her there. Four months ago, she had spine surgery at Children’s Hospital of Denver, followed by hip surgery, to protect her posture and lungs. Prudence was born with a condition called arthrogryposis, and cannot walk or use her arms. Rick contacted his friend and colleague, Dr. Steve Berman, professor [...]
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On May 19, Dr. Hodes accepted the Christopher Award for the documentary film “Making the Crooked Straight” (Susan Cohn Rockefeller, 2010) on behalf of Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentaries. This is the 62nd year that the organization has given awards to media that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.” Pictures below. The Christophers is a 65 [...]
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Dr. Hodes recently had the privilege of speaking at the commencement for UC Davis School of Medicine Class of 2011. (Skip to 1:22 in the video below to hear a snippet of his speech!) As the video highlights, Dr. Hodes stressed the importance of developing a reciprocal relationship with patients and the impact doctors can have on their [...]
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Check out this great update about Prudence from the Mountainfilm blog. It includes a wonderful thank you letter that Rick sent to Mountainfilm last year. For those who do not know the story, Prudence is an extremely inspirational young woman from Zimbabwe with the voice of an angel. Though raised with a severe deformity that [...]
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Dr. Paul Farmer is the director of Partners in Health, a human rights organization providing affordable health care solutions for impoverished people around the world. These are two shining examples of men truly dedicated to serving those in need!
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CBS recently featured a segment on Dr. Rick Hodes, focused on his work with children in Ethiopia. He was joined by film director Susan Cohn Rockefeller to discuss her HBO documentary about Dr. Hodes’ work called “Making the Crooked Straight.” Click the image below to watch the segment.
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Yesterday the kids in my home were helping, writing thank you cards to everyone who went to the Denver dinner (“Dinner for Unconditional Love“). Daguma, seated in the gray chair with shirt on in the top photo took off his shirt to show off his new back for the 2nd photo. 3 of the kids [...]
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Eight kids (plus 1 mom) back from Ghana last night! All smiles. Stay tuned for more info.
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These 8 children just returned from Ghana where they received corrective spine surgery. Here they are at their fist post-op visit to me. Photos used with permission. – Dr. Rick
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Yesterday, we sent these three girls to Ghana by plane, along with a nurse and a mom. Betsalot, Betelhem, and Biftu (left to right) are all returning to Ghana to continue spine treatment. Betsalot and Biftu are going for their 3rd growing rod procedure and it’s Betehlem’s 4th! – Dr. Rick
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Thank you Lou Tauber, age 13! Lou is a 7th grade student in San Diego who heard about my work in Ethiopia, and decided to raise money for the cause as a Bar Mitzvah project*. He spoke with people, showed the HBO film Making the Crooked Straight, and collected donations. As a result, he was able to fund [...]
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Congratulations to Dr. Rick Hodes and all of those that contributed to “Making the Crooked Straight,” an HBO documentary about Dr. Hodes’ work in Ethiopia. The short film will be honored in April at the 62nd Annual Christopher Awards. According to the official website (www.christophers.org): First presented in 1949, the Christopher Awards were established by Christopher [...]
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In December, we posted an article about a fund raising effort by the Petoskey High School Student Council (see original article). The group of young leaders are looking to raise $5,000 to support Dr. Hodes’ work Ethiopia. The project is called “Dig Deep for Change,” and 100% of proceeds will go towards improving access to [...]
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BREAKING NEWS – Right now 30 kids in Ghana undergoing spine surgery by Dr. Boachie’s FOCOS team. We’re not fully funded, and greatly appreciate contributions – from small gifts to full sponsorships of $13K per child. Click here for detailed information about each patient, and take a look at their shining faces below! Click to [...]
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Another 15 kids are headed to Ghana for spine surgery, along with one mom and two nurses. That makes 30 total of our patients arriving in Ghana this month for surgery by Dr. Boachie’s FOCOS team. Stay tuned for updates. Please consider supporting these courageous children! Dr. Boachie and his team perform the surgery free of charge, [...]
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A new group of patients will be heading to Ghana for spine surgery in the near future. Half of them left yesterday morning and are now in Accra, Ghana being evaluated, and the other half will leave in the next few days. They phoned me today, and all is well. Photos used with permission. – Dr. Hodes
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Last month we posted an article about an honorary degree I was awarded from Regis University. (Click here to read full article.) Here is a picture of me accepting the award:
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Prudence is a severely handicapped young woman from Zimbabwe in Southern Africa who has a condition called arthrogryposis. After meeting her in Telluride, I arranged for her to have spine surgery in Ghana. Recently, we moved her spine surgery to Denver. Last week, she underwent successful spine surgery to straighten her spine. She is healing well. Read more on the [...]
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Breaking News: We are aiming to send 20-30 patients to Ghana for spine surgery within 1 month. Please consider helping us with funding. All donations are welcome and appreciated, and literally any amount helps! Fully sponsor a patient for $13,000. Your contribution directly affects the lives of these children. You’ve seen the success stories — we’ve proven time and [...]
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Once an ill young boy on the verge of death in Ethiopia, Mesfin Yana is now healthy and on the cusp of graduating from Georgia State University as a respiratory therapist. Dr. Hodes came across Mesfin in 2001 and quickly identified his condition as rheumatic fever, a very serious heart condition that required immediate surgery. Mesfin was flown to the [...]
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On January 13, 2011, Dr. Rick Hodes was presented with an honorary degree from Regis University. At the Dinner of Unconditional Love, the president of Regis University, Father Michael Sheeran, S.J., presented the Doctor of Humanitarian Medicine, Honoris Causa to Dr. Hodes for leading a life of distinguished service and professional achievement, which includes his [...]
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Last week was “The Dinner of Unconditional Love,” a large fund-raising dinner to support the work of Dr. Rick Hodes. The event was a HUGE success! Over 950 attended the dinner, which raised over $500,000 for Dr. Hodes’ patients in Ethiopia! For more details about the dinner, read “A Dinner of Unconditional Love,” a recent article from [...]
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Attention: This article contains graphic images. As part of my JDC work at the Catholic Mission here, Tsehai came to us early this year. She is a 21 year old from Southern Ethiopia who had an enormous jaw tumor the size of a bowling ball, (an ameloblastoma), growing for several years. In August, I brought her to Munich for surgical treatment. [...]
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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this website did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall site health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This site was viewed about 24,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping [...]
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Dr. Hodes will be kicking off the new year with a brief tour of the U.S. and Canada! His trip includes Ann Arbor, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, San Diego, and Denver.
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On Christmas day, 2009, I started Nuri on cancer chemotherapy, after the pathologists at University of Rochester confirmed that he had Hodgkin’s Disease. He had 6 cycles of ABVD and did fine. Yesterday he came in for a checkup, doing great. What a difference 11 months makes! Help us make this Christmas just as special for many other patients waiting for treatment [...]
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I recently got an email from Dr. Krishna Kumar, my colleague in India. He is a Harvard-trained pediatric cardiologist, asking how the group is doing after their heart surgeries. (Click to read about these patients.) I simply sent this photo back, with the caption “today’s photo says it all.” – Dr. Rick Hodes
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Fikru Gebre/Mariam is a young Ethiopian painter in his 30′s who has a studio in Addis Ababa and another in Paris. He splits his time between the 2 venues. I happened to meet Fikru at a friend’s home recently, and spoke of my work here. He was so taken by it and disturbed by the images of my patients, [...]
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I recently sent the following letter to Dr. Todd Rosengart, a cardiac surgeon at the Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, NY. In the letter, I tell the story of Marcos, a former heart patient of mine in the late 1980′s, who is now a healthy and newly-married! Enjoy the story and the picture [...]
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Special thank you to Tesfa.org for posting a great article called “Treatment for Daguma.” As the article says, we will be looking to get Daguma spine surgery as soon as possible. Click here to read full article.
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We need to raise $1,200 to purchase Hodgkin’s Disease medicine for this boy. His name is Masresha — click here to read his full story. His mom was properly advised by the people at the university hospital in Addis Abeba that he should not start treatment until all the medicine had been arranged. She managed to get [...]
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Michael came to me about 3 years ago. He had weight loss, a huge abdominal mass (spleen), and a white blood cell count of 255,000. (Normal is about 5,000). Bone marrow test suggested a form of leukemia known as CML: chronic myelogenous leukemia. For reasons unknown to all, there is a huge amount of CML among young people here. There [...]
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Special thanks to the Petoskey High School Student Council who are looking to raise $5,000 to support Dr. Hodes’ work Ethiopia. The project is called “Dig Deep for Change,” and 100% of proceeds will go towards building wells in rural Ethiopia. For their first fund raiser, the students are selling “Holiday Boxes.” People can buy [...]
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On Oct 24th, we sent 11 patients to SevenHills Hospital in Mumbai, India for heart surgery and procedures. This week everyone returned, doing well (see below). Click here to read the stories of these brave young men and women. Please continue to support these patients by donating today.
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