Last week Steven Goldberg (no relation), a former student of mine at the University of Miami School of Medicine, passed away of lymphoma at the age of 42.  After 25 years of my teaching at the U of M, his name stands out in my mind, not because of similarity of name, but because of his brilliance and character.  He was a true mensch.

Steve was born with transposition of the arteries, which required surgical correction.  When he advanced in medicine, his goal was to become a pediatric cardiac surgeon and offer to other children what had been provided to him.  He did just that, training at the same institution that had operated upon him as a child.  He specialized in difficult cardiac procedures in children, including the kind of congenital defect that he had, as well as cardiac transplantation.

You can gain a better glimpse of his character through the YouTube video he prepared for LeBonheur Children’s Hospital last year. Within only a few days of his passing, there were hundreds of facebook postings by people whose lives he had touched.

Steve was also a skilled artist who illustrated significant parts of my books on Clinical Physiology Made Ridiculously Simple and Med’Toons. Here are three of my favorite cartoons that he drew:

From Med'Toons, by Stephen Goldberg, Medmaster

T-helper cell function in the immune system. From Clinical Physiology Made Ridiculously Simple, by Stephen Goldberg, Medmaster

Steve will be greatly missed.  He was the personification of the ideal physician.