Health & Fitness

'School' For Surgeons

Applebaum funds state-of-the art learning center at Beaumont.

Bernard and Muriel Moray of Franklin

Eugene and Marcia Applebaum, and their daughters, Pamela Applebaum Wyett of Birmingham and
Lisa Applebaum Haddad of New York

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

I

t was a touching scene:

about 200 doctors, many of
them Jewish, kvelling over a
Jewish pharmacist.
They surrounded him and
his scooter on the third floor of
Royal Oak's William Beaumont
Hospital, shaking his hand, pat-
ting him on the back, laughing
with him and thanking him.
That's because the pharmacist,
Eugene Applebaum of Bloomfield
Hills, a noted Jewish philanthro-
pist, had turned the tables and
written them a "prescription"
— a $2.5 million check to cre-
ate the newly opened Marcia
and Eugene Applebaum Surgical
Learning Center at Beaumont,
believed to be the only one of its
kind in the nation.

The center will teach doctors
from around the world advanced
robotic-guided procedures and
minimally invasive surgical tech-
niques so they can train and test
their skills before ever stepping
into an operating room.
Applebaum, 69, was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis 20 years
ago. He and his wife, Marcia, who
have been married for 45 years,
received plaudits from doctors,
relatives and friends as well as
Beaumont officials at the center's
dedication May 17. Total cost
of the high-tech, 5,500-square-
foot facility is $4.5 million, with
a $500,000 gift from the Ford
Motor Company Fund leading 13
other donors.
Unlike many Jews who became
pharmacists in the mid-20th
century because anti-Semitism
prevented them from entering

medical schools, Applebaum con-
fided, amidst the congratulatory
din, that he always strived from
the beginning to be "a business-
man and a pharmacist," adding,
"I believe fun is business, and
now fun is philanthropy."
He later told the crowd,
"Marcia and I feel strongly that
Beaumont is one of the nation's
foremost surgical hospitals ...
with an outstanding reputation.
That's why we're committed to
the hospital and made this gift.
The learning center is a great
thing for this area, for Detroit
and for Michigan."
Dr. Charles Shanley, vice
president of Beaumont's Surgical
Services, said, "The Applebaums'
gift realizes a five-year vision to
develop a premier educational
resource that can effectively shift
the learning curve for new surgi-

cal procedures!'
Beaumont doctors performed
55,105 surgeries last year, second
in the nation for surgical volume.
Admissions totaled 58,106 in the
1,061-bed hospital that opened
in 1955. There are five other
Beaumont facilities in the north-
ern Detroit suburbs.
The new learning center has
a surgical skills lab with 10
stations, including flat-panel
television screens and two-way
communications enabling doc-
tors worldwide to interact; two
mock operating rooms, including
robots and patient simulators —
manikins — for hands-on train-
ing; work stations with "scopes:'
and a high-tech classroom where
doctors can watch actual surger-
ies on closed-circuit TV.
The Jewish doctors marveled
at the learning center and had

high praise for the Applebaums.
"In past years, the surgeons'
motto used to be 'see one, do one,
teach one' — but we did them on
live people," recalled Dr. Richard
Brown of Birmingham. "Now, the
surgeons can practice with this
equipment first."
Dr. Jack Shapiro of Bloomfield
Hills added, "The robotic surgical
system is state-of-the-art. It gives
unprecedented control and preci-
sion of surgical instruments!'
Dr. Leslie Rocher of West
Bloomfield compared the new
center to a flight simulator where
"pilots learn to fly and gain expe-
rience in emergency conditions
before actually taking a plane up.
Here, the surgeons simulate oper-
ating conditions on manikins!'
Dr. Harry Herkowitz of West
Bloomfield, an orthopedic spe-

Applebauni on page 30

Beaumont Box Score

Royal Oak's William Beaumont Hospital ranked second in the
United States and first in Michigan in 2005 for total surger-
ies – 55,105.
The hospital had 19,148 inpatient surgeries; 35,957 outpa-
tient surgeries; 115,894 emergency visits; 6,205 births, and
58,106 total admissions.
Ninety-one medical and surgical specialties are represented
on the staff of more than 2,400 physicians.

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