Fred Epstein, 68, Leading Pediatric Neurosurgeon

Fred Epstein, who died Sunday at 68, was a neurosurgeon known for his innovative and aggressive treatment of brain and spinal tumors in children, and also for his humanistic philosophy of treatment, which brought a holistic focus on the family to pediatric surgery.

He was founding director of the Hymen-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. While keeping the institute at the forefront of medical technology with robotic surgical tools and the like, he also brought in a Buddhist monk to help patients meditate and once brought the Dalai Lama along on his ward rounds.

The Washington Times said of him that he had "the gray eminence of a space-shuttle commander with the mushiness of Leo Buscaglia."

A rarity among specialists, Epstein's number was published in the Greenwich phonebook, and he encouraged prospective patients to call him at all hours. He was known for operating in cowboy boots, much to the delight of children, who called him simply "Fred."

Epstein was known as a charismatic advocate who rejected the conventional emotional wall between doctor and patient. He would go to nearly heroic lengths, sometimes to the consternation of critics. "I'm outraged about tumors," he told Ted Koppel in a 2001 interview on Nightline, one of his many appearances in the national news. "I guess I've dedicated my life, really, to trying to cure them all."

In another interview, with the Washington Times in 1993, Epstein said, "I cannot go into the operating room until the child is asleep. If I go before the child is asleep I get terribly upset, y'- know? Crying, I just can't go."

Epstein's career came to an abrupt end in 2001, when he fell from his bicycle and — despite wearing a helmet — sustained severe neurological damage that left him in a coma for weeks, and partially paralyzed. His beloved INN, which once boasted the highest number of pediatric discharges in the city, was parceled out among other hospitals.

Epstein grew up in Yonkers. He was the son of a psychiatrist and decided at an early age to become a doctor. But he was an indifferent student, and was initially rejected at a dozen medical schools. He later came to attribute his problems to attention deficit disorder, which he overcame through determination. He graduated from New York Medical College in 1963. After completing his neurosurgical residency at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center in 1970, he was appointed assistant professor of Neurosurgery at New York University. In 1983, he became director of the division of pediatric neurosurgery, a specialty he helped to invent.

Epstein was involved with several high-profile surgeries over the years, including one in 1981 on Yankee pitcher Tommy John's son Travis, who fell out of a window and injured his head when he landed on the family car. Epstein's surgery was successful, and, as with many of his cases, he kept in touch with the family for years afterwards. Mr. John credited Epstein with saving his son's life.

In a seemingly bizarre case that received national play, Epstein in 1997 agreed to operate on a millionaire's dog, a pug with a spinal problem, on condition that the millionaire pay for surgery for a needy child. "You know what was the hardest thing for me?" Epstein told ABC News. "While I was operating on the spinal cord, to become adjusted to the adjacent operating room barking." The beneficiary was a Pennsylvania boy with a spinal tumor, which Epstein operated on. The next year, the pug and the boy visited Epstein together for a checkup. (As of 2005, the boy was alive but the pug had died of old age.)

Also in 1997, after a British girl under his care died, Epstein was criticized by a leading British cancer specialist for offering victims of cancer false hope with "useless" treatments, and the British General Medical Council lodged a formal complaint with the New York Medical Board. The complaint went nowhere, and the girl's father praised Epstein in a news report in the Scotsman for giving his daughter "an extra nine months." He added, "British doctors are a disgrace, most of them. They give in too easily. They should learn from Dr. Epstein."

The way Epstein liked to tell the story, he came to his humanistic view of treatment through a poem written by a terminal patient with brain cancer, that ended "I ask you, reader, whoever you may be, take my trembling hand and warm it with care and sympathy."

"I just keep thinking, ‘Hold my trembling hand,'" Epstein told Mr. Koppel.

In 1996, Beth Israel gave him the opportunity to put his beliefs in action with a state-of-the-art pediatric facility, the INN. About 100 NYU staff members followed Epstein to his new venture. In addition to modern technology, the $25 million facility was outfitted with sleeper chairs so parents could stay with their kids.The recovery room was eliminated so children could wake up with their parents.

In 2003, partially paralyzed by his bicycle accident and wearing an eye-patch to combat double vision, Epstein gathered inspirational stories of sick children for a book titled "When I Get to Five," the title coming from a 4-year-old cancer patient who dreamed of what she would accomplish in just a year — tying her shoes and riding a two-wheeler.

Children, he wrote, are "remarkably resilient in the face of life-threatening illness, largely because of their openness to experience and their willingness to live fully in the present." The book concluded, "We may know too much about the unpredictable ways of the world to expect a happy ending, but we can't help but hope for one all the same. It's the only way to get to five."

Fred Epstein
Born July 26, 1937, in Yonkers; died July 9 of metastatic malignant melanoma at his home in Greenwich, Conn.; survived by his wife of 42 years, Kathy, his children Samara Epstein Cohen, Ilana Epstein Grady, Jason Epstein, Joseph Epstein, and Benjamin Epstein; three grandchildren and a brother, Simon Epstein, M.D.