This is no joke. My last major surgery came because I ignored a hiatal hernia. That was years ago and they used to split you open down the chest to repair the hernia. Now they have laparoscopic surgery (I'm telling you that for a reason.)
Anyway, I ignore the hiatal hernia and begin having serious problems. Then, one day I passed out in the parking lot of where I work when I pulled off steel toed shoes to put on my slip on shoes. The doctor who had been telling me nothing was wrong sent me to do an x ray of my chest. Then all Hell broke loose. The x ray revealed that my stomach was pushed through my chest cavity and covering my heart. All of that had pushed my heart into my transverse colon and into my lung. I was near death. It was ten and a half surgery. It took a heart surgeon - one of the best they could find.
Moral: If you get a hiatal hernia, get the damn thing fixed. Mine was the worst they said they had seen, but it could be you next.