A pioneering surgeon

In the past, Mennonites could usually be found plowing fields or tending livestock. But a huge transition occured. Today many Canadian Mennonites can be found working in hospitals with stethoscopes, scalpels, and surgical knives. These doctors, nurses, researchers, and surgeons are putting their faith into practice through medicine and playing an important role in Canadian society.

Dr. Hildebrand (right) and Dr. David Jones at UBC awards ceremony. Photo provided by UBC medical alumni association.

The outstanding contributions of one such Mennonite surgeon were acknowledged in Vancouver in early May.

Dr. Henry Hildebrand, a retired vascular surgeon and attendee at Point Grey Inter-Mennonite Church in Vancouver, was recognized by the University of B.C. Medical Alumni Association for his significant contribution as a committed clinician, teacher, mentor, and administrator.

“Dr. Hildebrand is highly regarded as a vascular surgeon, dedicated to his patients; he’s a caring empathetic physician,” said Dr. David Jones at the ceremony. Alumni president Dr. Lynne Doyle said Henry “was ahead of his time; a vascular surgeon before it became a specialty, a pioneer.”

Dr. Hildebrand, originally from Niverville, Manitoba, trained at the Universities of Manitoba, Cleveland, and Belgium, and at UBC. Henry and his wife Hilda were missionaries in the former Belgian Congo at the tumultuous time when Congo gained its independence. The Hildebrands have done volunteer medical work in Honduras, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Ukraine, and Kenya.

Dr. Hildebrand’s retirement as a vascular surgeon did not end his medical career. “I asked the Lord one day, ‘Do you still want me to do something surgical?’ The next day I got a phone call.” The Africa Inland Mission, a non-denominational organization, needed a surgeon at the Kijabe Hospital in rural Kenya.

Henry and Hilda worked for six months at Kijabe, where Henry performed more than 400 surgeries. In Kijabe Henry developed a passionate concern for a problem experienced by young African women: vesicovaginal fistula (VVF).

Old enough to get pregnant but not developed enough to deliver a baby, the complications from prolonged labour result in a hole (fistula) developing between the bladder and the vagina. This allows urine to flow continuously into the mother’s vagina, creating a constant dribble. Urine wets the victim’s clothing and creates an offensive odour. These poverty-stricken teens are typically abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by their families and communities. The problem is surgically correctable.

On returning to Canada in 2001, Dr. Hildebrand established an endowment fund to help these young Kenyan mothers get corrective surgery. At a cost of $600, the surgery is expensive by Kenyan standards. The fund is managed by Africa Inland Mission, which subsidizes part of the surgical fee. Patients are also expected to contribute.

Dr. Hildebrand wants all women suffering from this affliction to get corrective surgery regardless of their financial situation. “Their lives are effectively finished. It’s nothing short of devastating,” he said. With the surgery, “literally, life can be given back to them.”

In addition to the UBC medical alumni award, the UBC Department of Surgery where Henry was a clinical professor is establishing the Dr. H.D. Hildebrand Award for a promising medical student in vascular surgery. Dr. Hildebrand was also accorded the Christian Medical Dental Society Honorary Member Award.

Henry is modest and honoured by the recognition. He recently completed an autobiography, Tides and Times. The volume includes a chapter entitled, “What I Learned as a Patient,” describing his own coronary bypass surgery.

In so many ways, Dr. Hildebrand’s is a life worth acknowledging.

Henry Neufeld attends Point Grey Inter-Mennonite Church in Vancouver. Copies of Dr. Hildebrand’s autobiography are available from the author.