A DOCTOR'S DOCTOR TO BE HONORED BY FUND FOR ARMENIAN RELIEF

A modest, unassuming, laid back and extraordinarily gifted and giving individual is Dr. Edgar M. Housepian, a renowned neurosurgeon, and professor. These praiseworthy personal traits belie a medical professional whose awards and honors crowd many pages. Visiting him at the world famous Presbyterian Hospital where so many of his accomplishments have been performed, I found him in a small office, lined with paintings of Armenia, happily continuing his research, even though he has been in retirement for 11 years. On January 15, 2010, Dr. Housepian will be honored at a gala banquet, sponsored by the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) for his vast contributions to medicine, and for the relief and medical efforts in Armenia. The event will take place at Cipriani, downtown. During an exclusive interview with this writer at Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Housepian revealed that his motivation for going into medicine and especially neurosurgery started with his father whom "I loved and respected very much. He had graduated from medical school in 1905, but they didn't have specialties in those days. He was a surgeon, delivered babies, and did everything. But after medicine advanced, fields developed, he gave up surgery and obstetrics, and ended his career by being an internist and a general family doctor. It must have been in my mind that medicine was a very fulfilling field." The young Edgar Housepian got his first job as an orderly in the operating room in New York Hospital at age 14, "when World War II was on, and manpower was hard up. I saw all sorts of operations, even helped out in the autopsy suite. Then I was asked to scrub on a couple of neurosurgical operations. When you're 15 years old, that's pretty awesome. It no doubt at least subconsciously influenced my future career. But I buried that thought, and joined the Navy when I turned 17 because I wanted to fly."
By Florence Avakian

<< | Home | >>

Translate

RSS © Azg

Headlines for November 21, 2009

BEAN AND GREENS EATING - DEADLY DANGEROUS
By Aghavni Haroutiunian, translated by L.H.
Syuniq community, located in the south of Armenia, is a little community of five villages. And when someone falls ill here, people most of all look for this or that medicine, or a doctor and then come ...
A DOCTOR'S DOCTOR TO BE HONORED BY FUND FOR ARMENIAN RELIEF
By Florence Avakian
A modest, unassuming, laid back and extraordinarily gifted and giving individual is Dr. Edgar M. Housepian, a renowned neurosurgeon, and professor. These praiseworthy personal traits belie a medical professional ...
ARMENIANS LAY CORNERSTONE FOR NEW CHURCH ON THE RIVER JORDAN
Special from Arthur Hagopian
Amman, Jordan - Long ago, in an age when it seemed life was simpler and uncomplicated, and innocence still possible, the River Jordan was a roaring torrent, barrelling its way through the inhospitable ...