Obstetrician

Dr. Theodore P. Reed III, a noted obstetrician and gynecologist, died Monday from complications of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 77 and lived in Easton.Dr. Reed developed nonoperative office sterilization techniques for women and invented the portable colposcope that is used to detect uterine and cervical cancer.He delivered more than 3,000 babies during a career that began in 1950, said his wife of 54 years, the former Naomi M. Geisenhoner.In the 1970s, Dr. Reed developed a method of blocking the fallopian tubes with a minute amount of silicone rubber that was injected inside the tubes through an instrument called a hysteroscope.

No one says new mothers have it easy. Nights spent waking up every two hours and days spent trying to figure out just why the baby is crying so much leave about 80 percent of new mothers physically exhausted, emotionally drained and despondent over their seeming inability to do anything well. Call it the baby blues.Most of these women feel better after two weeks, but 10 percent have a form of clinical depression that can last for many months. Mothers with so-called postpartum depression feel so sad, anxious and helpless that they have trouble taking care of the baby and themselves.

Dr. Anthony Francis DiPaula Sr., a cheerful Baltimore obstetrician and gynecologist who delivered thousands of babies during his 50-year career, died Sunday of chronic lymphocytic leukemia at the home of his daughter in Towson. He was 81.He was born and raised in Forest Park, the son of an Italian immigrant father who owned a North Avenue fruit store and insisted that his son would attend medical school and one day become a physician."His father, Antonio DiPaula, told him he would be a doctor, and that was it. He had no other choice in this world," said the daughter, Sue Ann Murphy, with a chuckle.

With the country in the midst of another baby boom, it's time to talk about one of the more insidious scams perpetrated on prospective parents: the myth of natural childbirth.You'd think that even the most dim-witted individual would sense there's nothing "natural" about a baby the size of a toaster inching down a birth canal with the circumference of a garden hose.Nevertheless, each year hundreds of thousands of soon-to-be moms and dads are ensnared in a con that goes like this:Sometime in the final months of the woman's pregnancy, it is suggested by her well-meaning but addled obstetrician (or the busy-body Earth Mother next door)

Dr. Zsigmund J. Toth, a Baltimore obstetrician and gynecologist who temporarily gave up his practice to sail the Atlantic Ocean, died Monday of heart failure at his Bolton Hill residence. He was 77.Against the advice of friends, Dr. Toth fulfilled a lifelong dream when he set sail in October 1971 with his family from Pier 4 in the Ishtar, a 42-foot ketch named for the goddess of fertility."This was something he wanted to do all of his life. So he gave his practice to a friend, and we were gone for nearly three years," said his wife, the former Helen Opuda of Girardville, Pa., whom he married in 1941.

A former Columbia girl, born with cerebral palsy and delivered prematurely, has reached a $4.1 million out-of-court settlement in a medical malpractice suit..With cost-of-living increases from an annuity set up with that money, the settlement reached Monday could give Tracina Woods, now 13, up to $8.6 million during her lifetime, said her attorney, Kenneth C. Vogelstein of Baltimore."It's unusually large," said Mr. Vogelstein, who noted that many malpractice awards range between $200,000 to $2 million.

I am always interested in saving women from unnecessary surgical procedures, so I was particularly intrigued by a recent piece of research that questions the need for routine episiotomies during childbirth.Sixty percent of American women who deliver their babies vaginally have an episiotomy. For first-time mothers, the figure is even higher -- some 80 percent have an episiotomy. To find out why this is, I spoke to Dr. Frank Witter, acting director of maternal-fetal medicine, and to nurse-midwife Lisa Summers, coordinator of nurse midwifery research at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

She ventured slowly down that shadowed laneNow bright with wonder and now dark with pain.The trembling thread of life stretched taut and thin,But softly then, new radiance filtered in.% -- Lydia AtkinsonSHORTLY before 12:45 p.m. on a Thursday, my son Reeexecuted a rather nifty right-angle turn at the pelvis and successfully completed his 10-hour trip down the birth canal.My wife did all the work. I received half of the credit. When the boy pushed himself into the light, we both watched as our love miraculously multiplied, a strange and holy alchemy and geometry.

First came 4-pound, 13-ounce Minlo at 11:57 a.m.Then 5-pound, 9-ounce Kognea Marie arrived one minute later.And finally, 6-pound, 3-ounce Siequa checked in at 11:59 a.m.Triplets. Count 'em. A boy, a girl, and another boy. They were born yesterday to 40-year-old Rosa Wonlin of Baltimore at Harbor Hospital Center.It was the first time in 16 years that the South Baltimore hospital, which serves a large area in northern Anne Arundel County, had played host to newborn triplets.Although the babies were bornfour weeks premature, all were doing fine, said neonatologist Dr. Larry Yap.Kognea Marie was receiving oxygen, but her condition wasn't serious.

Sharon Baker says she didn't really mind having her hysterectomy televised for a group of visiting obstetrician-gynecologists, so long as they didn't know who she was.There was little chance that they'd be able to identify her.What the doctors saw on the color TV screen in the Carroll County General Hospital cafeteria was a tan uterus, some yellow bowel, some dark red blood and tiny metal instruments.The TV was set up for two demonstrations of a new hysterectomy technique devised by local obstetricians-gynecologists Samuel Ahn and Paul Vietz in cooperation with German physician Kurt Semm, a pioneer in surgeries using laparoscopes.

Sylvan Frieman, a retired Baltimore obstetrician and gynecologist who was also a clinical assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School and worked with the homeless, died of congestive heart failure Aug. 22 at his Owings Mills home. He was 81. Born in Baltimore, the son of a credit manager and a stenographer, Dr. Frieman was raised on Ridgewood Avenue in Northwest Baltimore. After graduating from City College in 1945, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1949 from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Baltimore Washington Medical Center has appointed Dr. S. Patrick Donegan, M.S.H.S.A., as chairman of the hospital's new Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Donegan will head up the development of BWMC's comprehensive obstetrics program, scheduled to open in the fall. He will oversee all aspects of obstetrics and gynecology operations and work closely with physicians and administrators in creating the new program, according to the hospital. "It is a unique and incredible opportunity to build a brand new obstetrical program that incorporates high quality medical care in a personal and caring environment," Donegan said in a statement.

Dr. John C. Norton Jr., a retired Baltimore obstetrician and gynecologist who during his 46-year career delivered an estimated 7,000 babies, died Monday of complications from a stroke at his Catonsville home. He was 91. Dr. Norton, whose father was a Baltimore obstetrician and gynecologist, was born in Baltimore and raised on Montrose Avenue in Catonsville. By the time he was 9 years old, Dr. Norton had settled on a medical career. "It was a lofty dream, considering he spent two years of his early age sick with rheumatic fever," wrote Suzanne M. Dieringer, a daughter who lives in Davidsonville, in a eulogy for her father.

Obstetrician found liable for malpractice A Baltimore obstetrician and former city councilman was found liable for medical malpractice yesterday, and ordered by a city jury to pay $8.1 million to the parents of a baby boy he delivered in 2003. The jury found that Dr. Emerson R. Julian Jr., an obstetrician in private practice, was responsible for the brain damage suffered by infant Caleb Spence during a difficult delivery at Mercy Medical Center. But the damages would be limited to just over $2.1 million under Maryland law putting a cap on awards for pain and suffering.

Dr. J. King B.E. Seegar Jr., an obstetrician and gynecologist who had been deputy director of preventive medicine for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died Monday at the Edenwald retirement community of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 97. Dr. Seegar was born in Baltimore, the son of Dr. John King Beck Emory Seegar Sr., a noted obstetrician and gynecologist who practiced in Baltimore for 45 years before his death in 1945. Dr. Seegar was raised in Irvington and Roland Park and graduated in 1927 from Boys' Latin School.

Dr. Christian Frederick Richter, a retired Baltimore County obstetrician and gynecologist who was an avid Civil War buff, died of leukemia Thursday at Edenwald Retirement Community in Towson. The former longtime Ruxton resident was 91. Dr. Richter, the son of a builder, was born in Baltimore and raised in Overlea. He was a 1932 graduate of Towson High School and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in 1936. After earning his medical degree from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1941, Dr. Richter worked for the U.S. Public Health Service in New Orleans during World War II. He returned to Baltimore after the war and established an OB/GYN practice in Towson.

Dr. Herbert Leonard Yousem, a retired Baltimore obstetrician and gynecologist who was admired by colleagues and revered by his patients, died of bladder cancer Monday at his Owings Mills home. He was 76. Born in Baltimore of immigrant parents from Poland, Dr. Yousem was raised on West Lafayette Avenue. He graduated in 1946 from City College and earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1950. "His parents were uneducated sweatshop laborers who later opened a grocery store, and always placed a great emphasis on higher education," said a son, Dr. David M. Yousem of Lutherville, a staff neuroradiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Vernon Charles Kelly Sr., a retired obstetrician who treated the wounded during the Allied invasion of France in World War II, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy. The Roland Park resident was 89. Born in Baltimore and raised on Somerset Road, he was a 1932 McDonogh School graduate. He earned a degree at the Johns Hopkins University and also received vocal training at the Peabody Institute, where he won a vocal competition, the Outstanding Voice Award.

So much to eat, so little time. Everywhere you looked in the mezzanine of the Hyatt Regency, there was another local chef offering his specialty. At one table, they were sauteing up citrus-crusted sea bream. At another, you were treated to baby lamb chops with spinach and goat cheese. How about that cioppino over there? Or the clams casino way over there? None of these delectable dishes was going to waste, thanks to the 500 hungry folks attending the March of Dimes' "Star Chefs of Baltimore Gourmet Fete."

Dr. Theodore P. Reed III, a noted obstetrician and gynecologist, died Monday from complications of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 77 and lived in Easton.Dr. Reed developed nonoperative office sterilization techniques for women and invented the portable colposcope that is used to detect uterine and cervical cancer.He delivered more than 3,000 babies during a career that began in 1950, said his wife of 54 years, the former Naomi M. Geisenhoner.In the 1970s, Dr. Reed developed a method of blocking the fallopian tubes with a minute amount of silicone rubber that was injected inside the tubes through an instrument called a hysteroscope.