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Cooler
Than He Realizes

Dr. Karol Zakalik became an overnight hockey fan
after treating injured Red Wings and meeting the team.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

StaffWriter

T

he least interesting thing
about Karol Zakalik is that
he is one of a team of doc-
tors treating injured Red -
Wings Vladimir Konstantinov and
Sergei Mnatsakanov.
Really.
What's more interesting is his story
about fleeing Poland in the late 1960s,
then trying to learn English, fit into
the stereotypical American dream and
meld into the mainstream of Oak
Park. In Poland, he says, "I was the
Jew; here I was a Pollack."
"We were basically undercover" in
Poland, says the 41-year-old recently
divorced neurosurgeon. "We heard
there might be another undercover
Jew in the neighborhood ... [got]
matzah from abroad, kept it secret."
Born in the city of Szczecin in
northwest Poland, Zakalik's parents
hid the family's Jewish identity from
young Karol until he was about 7 or
8. He learned about it, he says, "from
kids calling me `Jew.'"
In seventh grade (1968), his family
joined the last wave of Jews to leave
Poland. Anti-Semitism inspired by the
1967 Six-Day War in Israel motivated
the last big exodus of Polish Jews. A
normally reticent, constraining gov-
ernment finally established a policy to
expel "Zionists or other foreign ele-
ments" from the country, he recalls.
Zakalik's dad lost his job, and the fam-
,
ily got permission to leave.
A couple weeks' pitstop in Vienna
was followed by the move to Detroit,
where the Zakaliks had family who
had settled here in the '50s. In
America, they observed Judaism more
than in Poland, "but I think we are
handicapped by lack of education,"
Zakalik says.
When they arrived in Detroit, the
Zakaliks had to meld into the main-

11 / 7
1997

84

"I hate to admit it, but I'm
stream — that included learn-
not a big sports fan," he
ing the language, style of dress
says shyly.
and the overriding characteris-
When
the Red Wings play-
tics of being American. They
ers and coaches — all big
signed up at the Jewish
names and easily recogniz-
Community Center, and
able in Detroit — swarmed
young Karol went to Camp
the hospital after the limou-
Tamarack.
sine accident last June,
Somehow, he managed to
Zakalik says they had to
become entirely American in
introduce themselves to the
about five years. By college,
doctor.
Zakalik had learned enough
Since then, however, he has
of the American way to gain
become an overnight hock-
admission to Inteflex, the
ey fan. It had something to 0
University of Michigan's
do with the video of last
accelerated combined under-
season's Stanley Cup cham-
graduate and medical school
pionship, which he agrees
program. He finished med
was a unifying factor for
school in 1980, followed by
the city.
an internship at Henry Ford
"The players are regular
Hospital, residency at the
guys, they represent an
University of Vermont, study-
American dream," Zakalik
ing neurology and neuroradi-
says. "Something appeals to
ology in Montreal and
people about a regular guy
Denver, then a fellowship in
who goes out, does his job
pediatric neurosurgery at the
and doesn't whine."
University of Toronto
When Zakalik is not
Hospital for Sick Children.
performing emergency
The cases he sees are often
surgeries or tending to
the most dire: brain and spine
patients, he lives in
tumors, aneurysms, water on
Bloomfield Hills but likes
the brain. The door to
s0,*
to mountain bike on out-
Zakalik's tiny office is wallpa-
Dr. Karol Zakalik's o ce door is covered with drawings by his
of-the-way trails. Or he's
pered with drawings by his
youngest patients.
reading the New York Times
youngest patients, some of
("religiously"), attending
which say, "I love you Dr.
than happy.
symphony or opera performances or
Zakalik."
"The worst moments are when you
traveling out West.
"Originally, I didn't want to have
do all this work and the results are
He's also thought a lot about
anything to do with surgery because it
unsatisfying — the patient either died
what it means for a Jew to be a doctor.
was mechanical ... and they were
or developed a severe complication.
"Why are there a lot of Jewish
gung-ho macho. It didn't seem to me
Those are tough times because you
doctors? Rabbis talk about tikkun
to be what being a doctor was all
put so much-into it and intellectually
olam [repairing the world], helping
about."
you know not everything can end in a
others ... being empathetic, doing
But then he did surgery rotations
success, but emotionally ..."
unto others — one rabbi once asked
and found he liked working with his
• And yes, there is the Red Wing
what the meaning of Torah is in one
hands. "I liked the challenge of doing
player known as Vladdie and team
sentence: `Do unto others as you
surgery, putting everything together."
masseur now known simply as Sergei.
would have them do to you.' Doing
He describes his work as "a series of
Zakalik operated on one and put a
the right thing, being good, mixes in
epiphanies," although Zakalik admits
small tube into the brain of the other,
with being Jewish," he says. ❑
that sometimes the outcome is less
to monitor pressure.

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