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4.
HACKETT FOUNDATION
Dr. Hemwall learned Prolotherapy from the person who
coined the term “Prolotherapy,” George S. Hackett, MD,
in the 1950s. Dr. Hemwall helped form the Prolotherapy
Association in the 1960s and started taking doctors to
perform Prolotherapy in impoverished areas of Honduras.
Some of the doctors that went on these mission trips
are Jeffrey Patterson, DO, Rodney Van Pelt, MD, as well
as myself, Ross A. Hauser, MD. Dr. Hemwall did this for
over 30 years. He started the Hackett Foundation in 1969,
which was committed to promoting Prolotherapy and training
doctors in Prolotherapy. This foundation continues through
the leadership of Dr. Patterson. It has expanded to now
serve several countries to give Prolotherapy care to
those unable to afford the services, as well as train
doctors in Prolotherapy, with the hope of getting Prolotherapy
established in these other countries. This foundation
has been appropriately renamed the Hackett-Hemwall Foundation.
For further information please go to www.HackettHemwall.org.
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| Dr. Hemwall lecturing. |
5. PROLOTHERAPY
As surgery became more and more the norm in the 1960s
through the 1980s, there was one main voice that kept
Prolotherapy going. That voice was Gustav A. Hemwall,
MD’s voice! It is possible that Prolotherapy might have
vanished if not for the tenacity of this man. He was
convinced that it worked and was committed to not only
treating people with Prolotherapy, but training doctors
to perform the therapy. He made enough “Prolotherapy
disciples” that upon his death in 1998, at the age of
90, Prolotherapy has continued to prosper. Besides more
books being written on the subject, research papers being
published, and doctors being trained in it, now a medical
journal, this journal, is devoted to educating the world
on the life-changing effects of Prolotherapy. I am sure
that Gustav A. Hemwall, MD, my mentor and whose medical
practice I continue to run, would be very, very happy!
6. FAMILY
Though this is the last one I will mention, family was
certainly the priority in Dr. Hemwall’s life. He told
me one story that occurred early in his career. “Most
of the doctors at the hospital were joining the country
club. I had no interest in joining the country club.
It would cost me precious time with my family!” Dr. Hemwall
was married to Helen for 65 years. They fulfilled “til
death due us part.” They had four daughters. The family
was, and is, still very close. |
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