Surgeon Dr. Matt Strickland and Corry Coyne look at a CT scan of her hernia at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. Coyne had a basketball sized hernia repaired by Strickland through the Complex Hernia and Abdominal Reconstruction Group of Edmonton (CHARGE) program. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia

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Corry Coyne was struggling. After a pre-cancer surgery on her pancreas, she suffered from a basketball-sized hernia that she thought would never go away.

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“It impacted my life in more ways than you can imagine. It actually brings tears to my eyes because I went from somebody who had a very full life to somebody who did nothing,” Coyne said.

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Royal Alexandra Hospital’s CHARGE, Complex Hernia and Abdominal Reconstruction Group of Edmonton, stepped in to aid Coyne. Led by Dr. Ram Anantha, the program has become known nationwide as a leader in hernia treatment.

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“When I was in North Carolina doing my training in trauma and emergency general surgery, I learned how to do these techniques as well, and brought them to Edmonton when I came here to work,” said Anantha about how he brought the practice to the Royal Alex.

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Multiple surgeons picked up Anantha’s techniques via CHARGE, including Dr. Matt Strickland.

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“Hernias come in many different shapes, sizes, flavours. But the most complex is what we call incisional hernias, which are usually hernias that form after a prior life-saving or cancer surgery. It can be very hard to fix,” Strickland said.

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Hernias typically occur in the abdomen or groin.

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So a new treatment was devised to help those suffering from incisional hernias get the help they need.

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“What’s changed in the last 15 years is this family of operations called component separations, and what that essentially means is that we can take the abdominal wall apart, all the layers of muscle and skin and tendons that make up the abdominal wall, and we put them back together,” Strickland said.

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Strickland explained that the repairs of the abdominal wall are done with strong mesh that reinforces the muscles.

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The CHARGE team helped prepare Coyne for the eight-hour hernia surgery. Two years later, Coyne has successfully recovered and is feeling healthy.

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Dr. Ram Anantha discusses the Complex Hernia and Abdominal Reconstruction Group of Edmonton (CHARGE) program at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia

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Anantha said that patients like Coyne are why the program exists.

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“This is a story we hear repeatedly, where patients are being told for decades, even 20 years, that there is no surgery that can fix her hernia, and so it’s really to combat that and say that there are better techniques available,” Anantha said. “It’s not just a patchwork repair that we offer; we truly are reconstructing their abdominal wall.”

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The CHARGE surgical team works at two other hospitals, but the Royal Alex is where it all started. Inside the outpatient unit, Coyne said the program gave her her life back.

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“This program gave my family and my friends me back to them. That’s why I’m here today.”

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An emotional Corry Coyne is hugged her surgeon Dr. Matt Strickland, at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. Coyne had a basketball-sized hernia repaired by Strickland through the Complex Hernia and Abdominal Reconstruction Group of Edmonton (CHARGE) program. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia

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