Photo: Philip Dirksen, MD

 

60th Anniversary Heroes

All Media Featuring Philip Dirksen, MD

Philip Dirksen, MD

2008 Hero

Surgery
North Valley

For more than 20 years, Dr. Dirksen has approached patient care with kindness, empathy, and compassion. His passion for serving others is life-changing for his patients here and abroad. He travels to Africa annually for 6-8 weeks to restore health and hope to patients in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by training physicians and providing surgical care. In association with World Venture, he and his wife have helped open two hospitals and two nursing schools in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Working Congolese surgeons, who call him le Maître in admiration for his skill at taking on dauntingly complex surgical problems and making successful repairs and reconstruction, he has developed long-term relationships with his Congolese colleagues and is welcomed like family when he returns.