OPERATION HERNIA AMBASSADORS
The following surgeons have been appointed as Operation Hernia Ambassadors. The appointments recognise their sustained commitment and outstanding contributions to the vital humanitarian work carried out by Operation Hernia.
Ralph Lorenz (Germany)
Ralph Lorenz graduated in medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1989. Since 2000 he has been in private surgical practice in Berlin and has dedicated his efforts to hernia surgery. He has been Medical Director of the 3CHIRURGEN medical practice in Berlin since 2006 and from 2009 has taught in the European Surgical Institute – ESI Norderstedt. He currently runs over 20 national and international courses each year covering various hernia surgical procedures.
Ralph is a member of European Hernia Society and board member of various surgical societies in Germany. He is a founder and scientific manager of the Berliner Hernientage – Berlin Herniadays – an international congress held each year since 2007. He is also one of the founders and managers of a standardized education course in the field of hernia surgery – Hernie kompakt.
Ralph is a member of the Scientific Board of the German Hernia Registry, Herniamed GmbH, and since 2011 has been Vice President of the German Hernia Society. Since 2011 he has participated in various Operation Hernia missions to both West and East Africa and from 2012 he has managed and supported the projects in Rwanda.
Terry Irwin (Northern Ireland)
Terry Irwin is a Consultant Surgeon in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons from both Edinburgh and London and has an MD, awarded after a period of full time research. He specialises in colorectal surgery, but has a long-standing interest in hernia surgery, in particular the repair of large complex abdominal hernias.
He is a keen surgical trainer, who has in the past been responsible for the surgical training scheme in Northern Ireland as Regional Advisor (now called Head of School). He has been Clinical Director for Surgery in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. Currently he is the Northern Ireland Director of Professional Affairs for the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has a keen interest in surgical safety and has spoken and published on this theme.
Terry is also a keen traveller, and until recently was the secretary of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He has travelled to Ghana with his wife Jenny, a theatre nurse, to support Operation Hernia since 2008.
Kelly Shine (USA)
Kelly Shine is a general surgeon in Frederick, Maryland, USA and she has had a life-long interest in international surgery. This led her to Operation Hernia and her first volunteer trip in 2013 at the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho, Ghana.
As an Operation Hernia Ambassador, Kelly invites you to come join her and the other volunteers. If you are a first time volunteer, you will benefit from the high level of organization that is in place. If you are a seasoned volunteer, you will appreciate the volume of operating and teaching waiting to be done in various interesting and exciting locations. Outside of work, Kelly enjoys time with her friends and family, sports and the natural world.
The late Guido Schürmann (Germany)
Guido Schürmann was the Professor of Surgery and Head of the Department of General and Visceral Surgery, at the Klinikum Bielefeld in Germany. In addition to his German Surgical Certification, Guido was also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS). He had particular interests in colorectal surgery and endocrine surgery, including minimally invasive surgery, along with his interests in hernia surgery. He had taken part in several Operation Hernia missions to Ghana prior to October 2017 when he died unexpectedly, just 11 days before his planned return to Ghana for another Operation Hernia mission.
In 2013, Professor Schürmann with his wife Cordula provided generous funding for a new scheme, the Operation Hernia Ghana Fellowship. This scheme allows Ghanaian doctors to join Operation Hernia missions, thereby gaining more experience in the repair of hernias using polypropelene mesh.