tors: This doctor is
really something."
he favorite food
of the brilliant
surgeon: junk.
He loves diet
drinks and pizza.
The favorite reading
Dr. Fred Epstein: "There is never a good reason to surrender hope for any child."
material of the bril-
liant surgeon: myster-
ies.
medicine. But he was not
a passion for what you do.
No thanks, Dr. Epstein
exactly devoted to school
Then you have to have
says, to books or movies or
("I was a lousy student," is
some luck — you have to
plays that even suggest
the way Dr. Epstein puts
be lucky enough to find
anything depressing. Like
it); his interests lay in
something you have a pas-
Annie. That's right, Annie.
sports and stamp collect-
sion for, and serendipity
"I felt so bad after I saw
ing. When he applied to
has to put you in the right
that, and my wife asked,
NYU med school, the
place. Finally, you have to
`How can you find Annie
interviewer told him he
go out on a limb. Be will-
depressing?' " he recalls. "I
was unstable.
ing not to be ashamed if
couldn't figure it out; then
But the future Dr.
things you try don't work.
finally I realized the prob-
Epstein refused to aban-
That's what creativity is
lem: Annie was an
don his love of medicine,
all about. You may have
orphan."
and eventually he was
19 ideas, all of which fail,
Fred Epstein was born
accepted to medical school.
but the 20th could be the
and raised in New York.
This driving desire to
one that saves the world."
By the time he was 4 he
become a doctor, or an
Dr. Epstein began his
had made his career
astronaut or a Supreme
pediatric neurosurgery
choice: "I wanted to be a
Court justice is, he says, a
studies in 1970 when the
garbage man." Two years
key to success.
field "wasn't even a sub-
later his interest turned to
"First, you have to have
speciality." It's still not a

I

never a good reason
to surrender hope for
any child."
n a cozy Warren
home with orange
curtains in the
kitchen and clar-
inet sheet music on a
stand by the front
window sits Ella Bezy
and her daughter,
Michelle.
Mrs. Bezy is ebullient
and outgoing and upbeat,
despite the tragedies she
has suffered in recent
years: an older son who
had to have open-heart
surgery, a younger son
with diabetes, and her
only daughter diagnosed
at age 6 with a spinal-cord
tumor.
"The way I look at it, it
could be so much worse,"
she says. "When you think
about those children with
brain tumors who never
make it..."
She's also -grateful for
Dr. Epstein whom she dis-

I

top choice of medical stu-
dents. Today, there are
about 80 such physicians
in the country.
"Technically, it's diffi-
cult," Dr. Epstein says.
"But it's also very emotion-
ally turbulent. You have to
be willing to insert your-
self into the family, be
there whenever they want
to talk."
It's a philosophy Dr.
Epstein lives. His home
phone number is listed. He
has been known to spend
vacations meeting with
families needing his help.
A good third of his cases
are gratis.
His only policy: "There is

