As fair, blue-eyed Christians of Syrian and Lebanese descent, the family faced regular discrimination from Egyptian society and institutions.

Sadek arrived in the United States first, and was accepted into the radiology Ph.D. program at the University of Minnesota.

Brothers Ghanem "George", Adel "Marc", and Fayiz; sister Hoda "Mimi", and mother Alice joined Sadek in Minnesota after short stays in Brooklyn and Endicott, NY.

Ghanem and Marc spent their careers working for IBM, Control Data Systems, and Honeywell and its successor companies: Alliant TechSystems and Orbital ATK.

Hoda was a master Librarian in Greenwich, CT. Dr. Hilal married Cynthia Ann Tutundgy on June 28, 1964.

In 1968, he developed the technique of embolization, a way to treat malformations of blood vessels in the brain by injecting substances to occlude them.