Flip Mullen and Dr. John Kennedy met and began talking at Irish America’s Top 100 awards evening two years ago.

 

Mullen told Dr. Kennedy, director of the Running Clinic in the Gait Laboratory at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York about his work as the organizer of a four-day summer sports festival in Rockaway, New York for wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mullen, whose Irish roots lie in western Ireland, is a retired NYPD and FDNY officer who became involved with the Wounded Warriors Project – an organization set up by John Melia to provide programs and services for wounded veterans and their families.

Kennedy is a Dublin native who continues his charity work in Santo Domingo where he performs 15 to 20 orthopedic surgeries free of charge each year. After the two men met, Mullen and other members of the Wounded Warriors Project began to advise injured soldiers who may require a second medical opinion to seek the advice of Dr. Kennedy.

Speaking about meeting Kennedy, Mullen said, “Thanks to fate and Irish America magazine, we are able to help a whole lot of fellas. . . . Kennedy is not just a second opinion. He is a wonderful top-notch surgeon. There is normally a two-year waiting list for patients to have a consultation with the doctor, but he makes huge exceptions for our soldiers.”

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