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"US Army Captain Brian Jantzen was only days away from surgery to remove his lower right leg. Military doctors had told the young captain - whose legs, feet and anklebones were shattered when his vehicle was hit by an IED (improvised explosive device) while on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq - that amputation was necessary. Then a chance conversation led him to Dubliner Dr John Kennedy, a top Manhattan orthopaedic surgeon, for a second opinion.

That was three years ago and Jantzen was the Irish doctor’s first referral from the Wounded Warriors Project, which aids severely injured service members. With the help of a groundbreaking bone regeneration technique, the young soldier kept his leg. And John has gone on to perform a growing number of limb-saving surgeries, free of charge, for gravely wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

An RCSI graduate, John Kennedy is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedics and the director of research in the Foot and Ankle Department at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York - ranked as the number one orthopaedic hospital in the United States. During an awards dinner in 2007, at which he was named one of the "Top 100 Irish Americans", John found himself sitting with Flip Mullen, another of the honourees. John was receiving the coveted award for his work in Santo Domingo where he performs 15 to 20 orthopaedic surgeries every year for those patients in the greatest need. Flip, a retired New York fire fighter, was being honoured for tireless work with the Wounded Warriors Project. The two men started talking and within minutes a relationship was formed that has since offered fresh hope to severely wounded soldiers, helping them to take back their lives." Scope, 5/18/10

Another of Kennedy’s Wounded Warrior patients is Sergeant John Borders. Both of his legs were crushed, his left arm sustained two open fractures, his ring finger was severed, he fractured a vertebra in his neck, had contusions to his lungs, a lacerated liver, shrapnel to his eyes, face and torso, and multiple burns in an explosion that happened while he was on patrol in Taji, Iraq in 2006.
Sgt Borders had undergone 50 operations, including the amputation of his left leg, and met with Kennedy and his team as a last ditch effort to save his remaining leg. They operated with great success in December 2007. “Dr Kennedy is a life saver,” Borders’ wife Mollie told Irish America recently. Scope, 5/18/10

Dr. Kennedy is a kind soul. Not only does he provide orthopedic surgeries free-of-charge to those in Santo Domingo and those veterans in the Wounded Warriors Project but he is the sweetest and most gentle person I know. I have undergone several surgeries in the last six years and he has gone above and beyond as both a surgeon and a human being.

Dr. Kennedy is most certainly working hard every day to make the world a better place and should be honored with The Gentleman's Fund 2011 award.