Pediatrician

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when you're considering parting ways with your pediatrician. I asked Owings Mills pediatrician Dr. Daniel Levy, who's answered a number of our Consults, to give us some things to think about when the relationship isn't working. Here's his reply: "Most parents go to some trouble finding the 'right doctor' for their child, but as hard as they try, sometimes things just don't work out. "There are lots of reasons why families switch the care of their kids to new pediatric practices in a community, but courtesy and humanity in going through the process will help tremendously.

As a pediatrician-in-training at Boston Medical Center in 1997, Joshua Sharfstein stood out among the other aspiring doctors by making house calls in poor neighborhoods. What Sharfstein discovered on those in-home visits led him to co-write a report showing that deplorable housing conditions can severely harm the health of children. The study, which Sharfstein undertook at age 28, grabbed national attention, garnered praise from the federal government's top housing official, and confirmed expectations set by an award that identified him as a potential public health leader while he was a Harvard Medical School student.

The American Medical Association is expected today to name Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis, vice dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, as editor of its prestigious medical journal, according to sources knowledgeable about the appointment.DeAngelis, a pediatrician who is known as a staunch advocate for women in medicine, declined to comment last night on reports of her appointment to the top post at the Journal of the American Medical Association. The AMA is planning to make an announcement at an afternoon news conference in New York.

Dr. Samuel S. Glick, a pediatrician who treated thousands of children during his 60-year practice, died of a stroke Saturday at Sinai Hospital. The Baltimore resident was 98.Dr. Glick also trained hundreds of medical students and doctors at the University of Maryland Medical School, where he taught for 40 years and was an associate professor of pediatrics."He was the grandfather of primary care pediatricians," said Dr. Murray Kappelman, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the UM medical school.

The staff at Howard County General Hospital would not have been surprised to see pediatrician Ted Leffler checking on a newborn patient Monday night. Colleagues called Dr. Allan Theodore Leffler II, a fixture at several area hospitals over three decades, as a tireless and hands-on advocate for his patients, even when they were in the care of a specialist or hospital staff. But the 66-year-old Ellicott City physician did not reach the hospital Monday night. Howard County police said a Ford Taurus driven by Christopher C. McCullough -- who had turned 21 that day -- crossed the median of Route 103 just west of Chatsworth Way, struck Dr. Leffler's Volkswagen Passat and killed both drivers on impact.

Dr. Edward L. Frey Jr., a West Baltimore pediatrician whose kind and gentle demeanor soothed anxious children and parents alike, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at St. Agnes HealthCare. The longtime Ten Hills resident was 84. Dr. Frey, who retired in 1984, had been a staff physician at St. Agnes Hospital for 35 years and had maintained a large private practice in Westview. He began practicing medicine at 11 E. Chase St. and later from an office above Hunting Ridge Pharmacy before moving to his Westview office in the 1970s.

Carroll parents who suspect their children have been sexually assaulted usually must take them to Baltimore to be examined because most county doctors are not trained to gather evidence and are unwilling to testify in court.In emergencies -- when sexual assault is suspected to have taken place in the last 72 hours -- doctors at Carroll County General Hospital perform examinations and report suspicions to police.But if a child waits days or weeks before telling someone about the assault, Carroll prosecutors and social workers must comb the Baltimore area to get an appointment with one of the few experts in child sexual abuse.

Dr. Carole Parnes has done a lot of nurturing in the past 20 years as the mother of three children and as a physician to hundreds of others.Now she will see to the growing pains of the 18-year-old Howard County General Hospital as president of its professional staff, which is 81 percent male. She is the first woman and first pediatrician to hold that post."I'm not a feminist, although I do believe in female equality. . . . I would prefer to be singled out not because I'm a woman, but because I'm a physician who has worked hard for the hospital and will continue to work hard for the hospital," said Parnes.

Dr. Donald Dwight Cooper, a Towson pediatrician and World War II medical officer who witnessed the formal Japanese surrender, died of congestive heart failure Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 89. Born in Glyndon, he was the son of Clarence G. Cooper, superintendent of Baltimore County schools for 26 years. He attended the old Demonstration School at what was then the State Normal School in Towson. He was president of the Class of 1931 at Towson High School, where he ran track and played lacrosse.

Talmadge H. Pinkney Sr. was a pediatrician who tried to see eye to eye with his pint-sized patients. He'd get on his knees, wink and develop an almost instant camaraderie with them.From the mid-1950s, when he began his practice at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Monroe Street in West Baltimore, until 1967, Dr. Pinkney was one of the city's few black pediatricians and one of even fewer doctors who made house calls.Dr. Pinkney, 87, who died Sunday at Liberty Medical Center from complications of lung surgery, seemed to enjoy each home visit.