16 | OCTOBER 3 • 2019

than pediatrics,
” she said. “I just
really like kids.
”

PROFESSION BY CHOICE
George Blum said his father
arrived in America as a teenager
from Hungary to avoid being
drafted into the Hungarian Army
during World War I. His father
worked as a restaurant server and
was “very pleased” his son became
a medical doctor.
George graduated from the
University of Michigan Medical
School in 1955, with a class of
206 students, six of whom were
women. Currently, U-M’
s medical
school has more women in the
medical school (60.5 percent) than
men (39.5 percent), according to
George, who has been a member of
Michigan’
s medical center alumni
board, and U-M’
s 2019 statistics.
He said he was influenced by his
own pediatrician, Dr. Max Kohn,
who treated him for scarlet fever
when he was 10. He was quaran-

tined for six weeks and his father
had to stay in a hotel for the dura-
tion of his illness.
“My pediatrician was a very
nice man,
” George said. “He would
make me feel better. I remember
how I liked to speak with my doc-
tors who treated me.
”
George said he would see
Kohn at medical conferences
once he became a pediatrician.
He also notes that seven of his
own childhood patients have
become pediatricians.
His relationship with Kohn as a
youngster taught him how to talk
to children.
“I tried to tell them jokes and ask
them about what they were doing,
”
he said. “Over the years, I still love
talking to kids.
”
“I never told (Robert) to be a
doctor,
” George said, adding that
Robert had originally contemplated
being a stockbroker.
“I always just gravitated to kids,
”
Robert said. He added that he
enjoys children’
s energy and their
uninhibited honesty and humor.
“Kids are so funny,” Robert
said. “They have no filter. They’
ll
tell you things about their par-
ents that the parents don’
t want
you to know.”
Natalie said she recalls as a child
going on rounds with her father
when he was treating patients at
Sinai Grace Hospital on Outer
Drive in Detroit.
“I got to play with babies so that
was fun,
” she said.
These days, the Drs. Blum
administer many childhood immu-

nizations, a move they highly
recommend to parents. They also
provided hundreds of vaccinations
for measles, mumps and rubella
during the recent measles outbreak
in Oakland County.
Robert said he sees kids with
autism, meningitis and many
cases of epiglottitis (a potentially
life-threatening condition that
causes swelling of the cartilage
that covers the windpipe and can
potentially block air from the
lungs). Numerous conditions his
father treated just don’
t exist any-
more, Robert noted.
“There are some diseases that
have just disappeared,” he said.
“We’
re vaccinating ourselves out
of business.”
However, there are condi-
tions he, his father and daughter
continue to treat. They see chil-
dren on the autistic spectrum,
which isn’
t new but was formerly
termed “mental retardation”
(now described as an “intellectual
disability”), along with behavior-
al-based problems like anxiety,
depression and sleep deprivation.
“I think kids don’
t have enough
time to just relax and play,
” Robert
said. “Unorganized activity doesn’
t
really exist anymore.
”
Patient medical knowledge has
also changed with the internet.
Though medical conditions and
attendant symptoms are searchable
online, Robert and George say their
clients still rely on their expertise.
“It’
s interesting that a lot of
people get information off the
internet, but they still ask me

“I remember that at the dinner
table Dad would take a million
calls. He just taught us how to
be doctors.”

— DR. ROBERT BLUM

Dr. George Blum treats
a young patient.

Jews in the D

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