Health & Fitness
Child
Centered
Photos by Jerry Zo ly n s ky
PROFILE
An avid sportsman,
Dr. Blum practices what
he advises for children —
getting enough exercise.
Longtime pediatrician still at bat.
Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News
p
ediatrician Dr. George Blum,
M.D., seems to exemplify the old
saying, "You can't take the boy out
of the man."
He spends most of his time with children.
He and his wife, Joyce, have five children
and 10 grandchildren.
He's an avid golfer, tennis and baseball
player and Detroit Tigers fan.
And right now, "I'm looking for a base-
ball league for old people for the summer!'
Last summer, Blum, now 79, celebrated
50 years as a pediatrician.
"'Dr. George' has treated over 200,000
children and still works full time to this
day:' says his office manager, Rebecca
O'Leary.
It's a profession that appealed to him
growing up as an only child.
"As a child, I felt devoid of companion-
ship," Blum says. "So I wanted to be around
a lot of kids."
He also was influenced because "I had
a pediatrician that used to make me
feel good when he came to the house."
(Coincidentally, his wife had the same
pediatrician.)
"I used to like making house calls': Blum
says. "No one seems to do that anymore."
Second Generation
Instead, Blum sees ailing patients like
7-year-old MacKenzie and 8-month-
old Autumn in his Southfield Pediatric
Physicians examination room on
Telegraph Road in Bingham Farms, just
as he used to see their mother, Paula
Adamczak, when she was a child.
"I had bad ears so it wasn't pleasant!'
says Paula. "I remember starting to cry as
soon as we turned into the parking lot."
Despite those memories, she drives
her two children with sore throats and
temperatures from their Westland home
because, she says, "They're the best!' refer-
ring to Blum's Bingham Farms practice.
"Say Aah," he suggests to MacKenzie,
noting that her throat is red.
"Is that one of your favorite colors?" he
38 February 24 • 2011
asks. "You're in the second grade, right?
How's school this year? You have nice rosy
cheeks — maybe rosier than you'd like."
Blum took stock of MacKenzie's symp-
toms on the examining table, but baby
Autumn sits upright in Paula's lap. "This
is usually how I look at little ones!' Blum
says. "I let Mommy hold them."
"Has she grabbed her ears?" he asks
Paula, setting off Autumn's tears as he
examines her. "0K, Sweetie Pie, I'm sorry"
The stuffed animal at the base of his
stethoscope hadn't fooled her at all.
Lasting Impression
Dr. Edward Pont, M.D., now a pediatrician
in Elmhurst, Ill., remembers that same
inquiring, caring manner when he was
Blum's patient.
"I have very fond memories of Dr. Blum':
says Pont, 45, whose parents, Herbert and
Janet Pont, still live in Southfield where he
graduated from Southfield-Lathrup High
School and was a member of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek.
"He was very gentle, very caring and
always gave the impression that he was lis-
tening to you',' Pont says.
"I'm sure he had something to do with
my going into the profession': says Pont, the
current president of the Illinois chapter of
the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Blum, who also headed his state chapter
of the American Academy of Pediatrics for
three years, is proud that "seven or eight of
my patients have become pediatricians" —
as well as his son, Dr. Robert Blum, D.O.,
who joined his dad's clinic 16 years ago.
The roster also includes Dr. Katherine
Erlich, 41, who says, "I've known Dr. George
all my life. He was there when I was born.
He met me before my mother did."
It was when she had her appendix out at
age 5, the Franklin resident says, that "I made
my decision to become a pediatrician!'
Lauds Clinical Skills
And Blum promptly told her that she could
always work with him — which she did for
nine years, before opening her own holistic
practice — Healing the Whole Child, at
the Center for Holistic Medicine in West
Bloomfield.
Who: Dr. George Blum, M.D.
Resides: Bloomfield Township
Honors: Michigan Pediatrician of the
Year, 1999.
Background: Graduated Central
High School, Detroit; Wayne State
University, Detroit; University of
Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor;
Served as a captain in the U.S. Army
Medical Corps; clinical instructor,
Wayne State University Medical School.
Jewish Affiliations: Member of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
Southfield. Served on boards of ORT,
Jewish Community Relations Council
of Metropolitan Detroit, Tamarack
Camps, JVS, Jewish Family Service
of Metropolitan Detroit.
Community Service: Past presi-
dent of the American Academy of
Pediatrics, Michigan Chapter,1992-
95; Board of Governors, Visiting
Committee for U-M Medical Center;
past chairman for Michigan State
Medical Society Committee on
Children and Youth.
Family: Wife, Joyce, active
in National Council of Jewish
Women, Hadassah and Women's
Division of Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit. Five children;
10 grandchildren. II
"His clinical skills are just superior:'
Erlich says.
Indeed, Blum revels in making tricky
diagnoses, a skill that he used in conclud-
ing that a 1-year-old had appendicitis. The
surgeons, he says, didn't believe him until
the child's appendix began to rupture.
"They had never seen a child that young
with appendicitis."
Only a few weeks ago, he diagnosed a
brain tumor in a 2-month-old baby. The
baby wasn't eating as well as he had at his
1-month checkup, Blum says, and "I remem-
bered reading about 40 years ago that not
eating can be a sign of a brain tumor.
"I ordered an MRI and there it was. That
was the youngest one I could find in medical
literature with this condition!'