Making a Difference Inside & Outside the OR: Meet Dr. Jonathan Hooper

Start 2025 Off On An Inspirational Note With Our Interview With The Recipient Of Ontario’s Anesthesiologists’ 2024 Distinguished Service Award.

“No, you’re not getting in.” Those were the firm words of a tough Bangladeshi customs officer to the volunteer medical team that had arrived at the country’s border, ready to fix the hands and arms of low-income Bangladeshis surgically.  

Dr. Jon Hooper

On that team was Dr. Jonathan (Jon) Hooper, an anesthesiologist who usually spent his days practicing at The Ottawa Hospital but now was overseeing the group’s anesthesia efforts. He remembers that while they were able to get the medical staff and their personal luggage into the country, “Customs held up all of our equipment.”

The team knew that, with money and some patience, they’d eventually be able to access their supplies. However, they were only scheduled to be in Bangladesh for two weeks.

“We had all these kids and adults lined up for surgeries,” Jon recalls. So the team assessed what equipment and supplies they could access locally. Between that and the large quantity of local anesthetic drugs Jon had thankfully stashed in his own suitcase, they realized that while administering general anesthesia wouldn’t be possible, they could still perform some simpler procedures.

“We started with the adults, and we did them all under regional anesthesia, under different blocks,” explains Jon, adding that this was in 2008, before the use of ultrasounds, “We were doing blocks the old-fashioned way, doing landmark techniques. It was old school, but it worked.”   

It worked so well, “We ran out of adults, so we started doing teenagers. And then we ran out of teenagers, so we ended up doing 10-to-12-year-olds with their moms at their sides. And those kids were unbelievable.”

Just as the team was running out of people they could help using the tools available, their equipment was released, and they could move on to younger patients and more complex cases.

Throughout the whole experience, Jon stayed calm and collected, in part due to his training as an anesthesiologist and in part due to being a veteran of overseas humanitarian work.

Over his forty-year-plus medical career, he’s gone on a dozen of these trips, directly helping hundreds of patients and indirectly impacting thousands more, by training local anesthesia staff.

volunteering in Bolivia

Jon’s dedication to making a difference around the world is one of the reasons he was awarded Ontario’s Anesthesiologists’ 2024 Distinguished Service Award. Our highest honour, this annual award recognizes an Ontario anesthesiologist with a history of significant service to our profession.

More than a few of our members were interested to learn more about Jon and his various humanitarian work so your section hopped on a call with our 2024 DSA recipient to chat about the many ways he’s given back to the world, both abroad and right in Ottawa.

Jon embarked on his first overseas humanitarian trip in 1986. Horrified by the images emerging out of the Ethiopian famine, “I thought well, maybe I could do something,” He took a year-long leave-of-absence from his anesthesia residency and headed to the Ethiopian province of Shewa, “It had about 380,000 people in it and there was only one doctor practicing: Me.”

Jon spent the bulk of that year volunteering at a relief camp that was transitioning to becoming a more permanent medical camp. “Every morning there would be around 100 people outside our gates, looking for medical care.”

Some cases, he recalls, were “shocking.” He says, “There were a lot of obstetrical disasters, which was horrible and sad.”

Thankfully, many cases were easier to deal with, like diarrhea triggered by unclean water. For those conditions, education was as crucial as treatment.

“Not only would we help patients, we would also teach them what was going on and then their job was to go back and teach everyone in their community.”

It was that educational element and the transformational impact it could have on a community that connected with Jon, who years later would earn a reputation at TOH as one of its top anesthesia educators.

Over the next few decades, Jon travelled to Ghana, Peru, Nepal, and more, usually working with ReSurge International (formerly known as Interplast), a non-profit organization dedicated to “…providing reconstructive surgical care in developing countries worldwide.”

In Bangladesh with a Pair of Volunteers and a local nurse

Jon connected with ReSurge because not only did it directly help patients, but it also trained the local medical teams.

“Its mandate is we go in and teach local surgeons four or five operations, and anesthesia teaches anesthesia and nursing teaches nursing,” explains Jon, “The whole hope is that in time, you’ll make them self-sufficient, and you won’t have to go back.”

Jon doesn’t hesitate when asked why he kept returning to overseas humanitarian work, “I think I got a heck of a lot more out of it than the patients did. It’s an education and a wake-up, seeing what other people go through and how grateful they are.”

He highly recommends overseas humanitarian work to his fellow physicians, “You meet some great people along the way and learn a little about the world and life,” and he notes, “It gives you a perspective on how lucky we are.”

Eight years following that first trip to Ethiopia, Jon would again find himself the only doctor around but this time his surroundings were radically different.  

In 1992, a nurse asked if he would volunteer his medical skills at the Ottawa Race Weekend, then a more modest event involving around 1,200 participants. He agreed and found himself the event’s only doctor.

Despite this surprise, “It was fun,” and another way to give back.

Jon has now held the title of the Ottawa Race Weekend “medical director” for over 30 years, during which the event has grown to involve over 40,000 runners over its various events. It’s a big role that includes organizing the weekend's medical services and supplies, managing all things medical on race days, and even training volunteers who must be prepared to treat a wide range of conditions.

“Some of it is pretty minor stuff and some of it… People die running so you have to have people there who can handle that kind of stuff,” explains Jon.

One of Jon’s favourite aspects of volunteering with the Ottawa Race Weekend is hearing from racers he initially treated and then provided guidance to, “I get emails back that say, ‘Hey maybe you remember me from eight years ago when I said I could never run again, well, I just did this race.’”

Jon took up running as a resident, “As a way to blow off steam.” He was still an avid runner in 2001 when he went on a blind date with Sindy, a then-hospital administrator at TOH, who he went on to marry in 2008.

While an active woman —Jon and Sindy’s first date was him watching her play soccer — she wasn’t initially a runner. “When we met, I ran all the time. I would run the 20k to visit her and then run home. She thought I was crazy,” he recalls.

Then, when in her forties, a girlfriend asked Sindy to help her train for a marathon. She quickly discovered that she was a natural runner, qualifying for the Boston Marathon after only completing her first-ever Ottawa Marathon.

Soon running, and then triathlons, became a shared passion for Jon and Sindy. His wife also encouraged him to pick up overseas humanitarian work again. “She said, ‘Just do it, right now, phone them and do it.”

This idea of seizing and living in the moment would eventually turn into a mantra that would guide the couple during the toughest times of their lives.  

In early 2013, Sindy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was a true shock—Sindy didn’t have any of the usual risk factors. Initially, the couple focused on treatment, which for Sindy included a Whipple surgery. It was while recovering from that surgery that Sindy decided to tackle the gruelling Ironman she'd signed up for pre-diagnosis, even though she’d be on chemotherapy during the August 2013 race.

Sindy and jon complete the 2013 ironman in Whistler, BC

Impressed by her strength and determination, people asked if they could donate funds, and Jon and Sindy quickly found that they had raised nearly $50,000, which they donated to Pancreatic Cancer Canada.

Jon explains that while the couple hadn’t planned to become major fundraisers for pancreatic cancer research, that’s exactly where life took them.

Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all the major cancers, killing over 70 per cent of patients within the first year. Jon recalls that while Sindy had never kept her condition a secret, when she made it to the one-year mark she decided to go “very public.” He describes her approach as going, “Here I am, it’s been a year and I’m still doing okay. And if we can raise money at the same time, let’s raise money at the same time.”

Over the next decade, Sindy completed another Ironman, 15 triathlons, including world championships in Mexico, Switzerland and South Africa, a duathlon in Ibiza, and another Boston Marathon. Jon always travelled with her, usually competing as well. The couple also participated annually in their beloved Ottawa Race Weekend.

“Most of the actual fundraising money came out of the Ottawa Race Weekend but invariably if Sindy did one of these big races and got some publicity for it, people would want to donate money,” says Jon.

He recalls once when Sindy recruited over 100 people to run with her in Ottawa Race Weekend, including around 80 people who had never done a marathon. “She even got her surgeon to run,” chuckles Jon.

He estimates that the couple has raised over $600,000 just for pancreatic cancer research at TOH, with much of the funding supporting the efforts of Dr. John Bell and his lab, which focuses on potentially creating cancer therapeutics using oncolytic viruses.

Unfortunately, Jon explains that, unlike many other cancers, the past decade has seen little advancement in treatments and survival rates for pancreatic cancer patients.

While Sindy’s cancer went into remission in 2013, it returned in 2021. On Friday, September 13, 2024, Sindy passed peacefully surrounded by Jon, her two sons, friends and her dog Lexey.

Sindy was one of Canada’s longest-living pancreatic cancer patients, and her legacy is one that Jon plans to continue for years to come.

In 2022, Sindy organized the first-ever Sindy’s Run, a fun run and fundraiser. On Saturday, November 9, Jon oversaw the latest edition of Sindy’s Run. The event, which saw over 300 participants run or walk around the Kanata Beaver Pond on a gorgeous fall day, raised over $40,000.

“There was so much love in that crowd,” says Jon, who hopes to make the run an annual event. He adds that there are also plans to potentially name a local running trail after Sindy.

A few photos from the 2024 Sindy’s Run

Jon has already started organizing a team in Sindy’s memory for the 2025 Ottawa Race Weekend. “We have a lofty goal of over $100,000 in donations,” says Jon, noting that over 80 people have already signed up to participate in Sindy’s name.

Looking back, “Sindy and I did so much stuff in the last 11 years,” says Jon, who remembers as wife someone who recognized the importance of always trying to create good. “Make every moment count; it’s not about the end, it’s about the journey. You see that on a coffee cup and go yeah, yeah, but my god it’s so true.”

Jon took a leave of absence from TOH in June 2024 that he initially thought would take him into retirement. But recently a few colleagues (both anesthesiologists and surgeons) have reached out to him and told him to, “Come on back Jon.” That encouragement now has him considering a return to the OR.

Says Jon, “It’s hard to leave a great environment, great people and a wonderful occupation.”