Pediatrics

Three years ago, business at an Annapolis pediatric service for children who get sick at night started slowly, with maybe a couple patients a night. But times have changed.On Saturday, doctors at Nighttime Pediatrics on Generals Highway saw 96 patients. On Sunday, it was 108."It's more common now to have two incomes, two working parents," said Dr. Robert G. Graw Jr., a Davidsonville pediatrician who started the practice with eight other pediatricians in December 1989. "Their children are in day care, where they are more exposed to germs.

The state of Maryland is seeking doctors willing to practice in needy areas of the state, in exchange for up to $50,000 to repay student loans. The Maryland Loan Assistance Repayment Program was launched in 1996 and 157 primary care doctors have gone through the Program. Currently, 30 are employed in Baltimore city and county and Anne Arundel, Garrett and Worcester county. “Having a sufficient supply of primary care physicians across the state is critical to improving the health status of Maryland citizens,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene , in a statement.

Dr. J. Edmund Bradley, retired professor of pediatric medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who became the first head of the pediatrics department there, died Wednesday of heart failure at his home in San Diego. The former Ruxton resident was 92.Dr. Bradley spent 31 years with the university, 17 of them as department head. He retired in 1965.Over the years, the doctor's popularity spread from staff to patients and to their parents, and when he walked through hospital corridors children happily followed him like the Pied Piper.

Dr. Ronald L. Gutberlet, a retired pediatrician who was a specialist in the care of premature infants, died of metastatic bladder cancer Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. The Cockeysville resident was 78. Born in Baltimore, he attended the Cathedral School and was a 1952 Loyola High School graduate. He earned a degree at Washington and Lee University and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1961. Dr. Gutberlet completed his residency at the University of Maryland and spent time as a young physician at Mercy Medical Center in downtown Baltimore, where he later returned.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore has named Dr. Jay Perman, dean and vice president for clinical affairs at the University of Kentucky medical school and former chair of pediatrics for the University of Maryland Medical System, as its new president. He will replace David J. Ramsay, who announced in June that he would step down as president after 15 years. The school made the announcement as it has been mired in controversy involving a state legislative audit that showed a high-ranking employee received $410,000 in "questionable compensation payments" that were approved by Ramsay.

Barton Childs, a Johns Hopkins University pediatrics professor emeritus who worked in the field of inherited diseases, died of pneumonia Feb. 18. He was 93. Dr. Childs lived in Roland Park and died at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "We have lost a giant of his or any generation of medicine," said Dr. Edward D. Miller, dean and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "His medical home was at Johns Hopkins, but his influence was worldwide." Born in Hinsdale, Ill., and raised in Chicago, he was an adopted child.

Dr. Melchijah Spragins, a retired pediatrician who had been chief of pediatrics at Greater Baltimore Medical Center for two decades, died in his sleep Tuesday at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. He was 87. It was Dr. Spragins' charm, wit and comforting demeanor that endeared him to patients and colleagues during his more than four-decade career as a pediatrician. "He took care of my kids, and he treated his patients like they were members of his own family. He was natural, down-to-earth and homespun but very erudite and one in a million.

Dr. Barbara Starfield, a professor and health services researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health whose work in the field of primary care and health policy brought her international acclaim, died June 10 while swimming at her home in Menlo Park, Calif. The longtime Mount Washington resident was 78. "She was found floating in the pool and may have died of an apparent heart attack. We are waiting for the autopsy report from the coroner," said her husband of 56 years, Dr. Neil A. Holtzman, a pediatrician and a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ronald L. Gutberlet, a retired pediatrician who was a specialist in the care of premature infants, died of metastatic bladder cancer Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. The Cockeysville resident was 78. Born in Baltimore, he attended the Cathedral School and was a 1952 Loyola High School graduate. He earned a degree at Washington and Lee University and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1961. Dr. Gutberlet completed his residency at the University of Maryland and spent time as a young physician at Mercy Medical Center in downtown Baltimore, where he later returned.

Stefanie F. Bergey, a child psychologist, died Nov. 9 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at her Homeland residence. She was 62. Stefanie Friday Antonakos was born in Athens, and when she was a young child, she immigrated with her family to Morristown, N.J. After graduating from Morristown High School in 1967, she earned a degree in child psychology from Douglass College of Rutgers University in New Brunswick....

Ten-year-old Juliana Carver loves to swim. Unfortunately, between chemotherapy treatments, medications and routine hospital visits, Juliana doesn't always have the time or energy to be in the water. "Her 'Make a Wish' wish when she first got cancer was a pool," her father said. John Carver describes his daughter as a "fish in the water. " Now, at the end of her second battle with a rare form of muscle cancer, she'll be spending a lot more time with other young swimmers. On Tuesday, Juliana became part of a Carroll County swim team that practices near her home in Hampstead.

Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez, former director of the division of child psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who also conducted pivotal studies on autism and other developmental disorders in children, died Friday of heart failure at his Palm City, Fla., home. The longtime Ruxton resident was 93. "He was my teacher many, many, many years ago at Hopkins. His teaching was patient-oriented and fundamentally bedside. He'd say, 'Let's go to the bedside and see the patient,'" said Dr. J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., who is director of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Hopkins School of Medicine.

Among the 84 calls for medical and fire-rescue service the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department received Jan. 1-8 were the following: Linden Avenue, 1200 block, 1:37 p.m. Jan. 7. Crews responded to the report of a person drowning in Arbutus. One seriously injured person taken to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Trauma Center. Shadynook Avenue, unit block, 2:22 p.m. Jan. 6. Crews from the Arbutus and Violetville volunteer stations and Catonsville and Westview career stations responded to the report of a dwelling fire in Catonsville and extinguished a chimney fire.

Dr. Sherman Samuel Robinson, a retired pediatrician who had been the athletics physician for Severna Park High School, died of cancer Monday at his Edgewater home. He was 79. Born in Pittsfield, Mass., and raised on Staten Island, N.Y., he earned a degree in biology and chemistry from Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va. He also belonged to the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was a 1957 graduate of the Georgetown University School of Medicine. While at Georgetown he met his future wife, Joan McCarron.

Dr. Edwin H. T. Besson, a retired pediatrician who was the former chairman of the St. Agnes Hospital pediatric department, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, Dec. 4 at his Ellicott City home. He was 85. In a memoir, he recalled that after his birth in Carbondale, Pa., he often moved with his family and wound up living in the small town of Stockton in Worcester County. His family had suffered economic hardship in the Depression and they lost their home.

Perhaps a cell phone makes a good Christmas gift for a pre-teen after all. The latest study on the use of sexually explicit text messages and email by youngsters - a practice referred to as "sexting" - reveals that it's not nearly as common as some may have believed. That's good news for anxiety-ridden parents who have had little to be comforted about on the child sexual abuse front in the wake of this fall's Penn State University scandal. The study published this week in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that only about 1 percent of children age 10-to-17 have ever sent or received sexually graphic images (defined as those that include uncovered breasts, buttocks or genitals)

After-hours center appoints Dr. Kingry Dr. Karen Kingry, a Howard County resident, has been appointed medical director of the new after-hours medical center, Nighttime Pediatrics and adult care too! - Columbia. She recently was medical director of pediatrics programs and chair of pediatrics at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, where she developed a combined emergency room and inpatient unit serving children in Montgomery County. She also practiced with the Patuxent Medical Group and as pediatrics hospitalist, associate medical director and co-founder of the Pediatric Care Center at Howard County General Hospital.

Dr. Sherman Samuel Robinson, a retired pediatrician who had been the athletics physician for Severna Park High School, died of cancer Monday at his Edgewater home. He was 79. Born in Pittsfield, Mass., and raised on Staten Island, N.Y., he earned a degree in biology and chemistry from Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va. He also belonged to the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was a 1957 graduate of the Georgetown University School of Medicine. While at Georgetown he met his future wife, Joan McCarron.

Stefanie F. Bergey, a child psychologist, died Nov. 9 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at her Homeland residence. She was 62. Stefanie Friday Antonakos was born in Athens, and when she was a young child, she immigrated with her family to Morristown, N.J. After graduating from Morristown High School in 1967, she earned a degree in child psychology from Douglass College of Rutgers University in New Brunswick....