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Growing up in Guatemala, Fernando Stein, M.D., FAAP, looked to his family pediatrician as a role model, someone who could satisfy his seemingly endless curiosities about medicine and being a doctor.
But when Dr. Stein’s father died, Dr. Gustavo Castañeda Palacios did more than just steer young Fernando Stein’s career goals. He made sure the boy’s family — which included five children between the ages of less than 1 year and 15 — would continue to have access to health care.
“He took it upon himself to be a father figure to us, and he told my mother she would never have to worry about paying a medical bill again,” Dr. Stein said.
Compassion inspires career
Dr. Stein (far right) and his wife, Vilma (second from right), gather at a park near Dr. Stein’s office during spring break this year. From left: son-in-law Nathan Rodgers, M.D., M.H.A., FAAP, a pediatric cardiology fellow; daughter Melaine Stein Rodgers, and their sons, Gabriel (in sunglasses) and Christian. Dr. Stein, whose interests include photography, cooking, dancing and magic, returns to Gualemala, his birthplace, at least four times a year.That compassion would become the guiding principle in Dr. Stein’s career, as he immigrated to the United States in 1976 and established himself as a preeminent critical care specialist, as well as an international voice on children’s health. Now a nominee for AAP president-elect, Dr. Stein often recalls his mentor.
“I feel that service is a privilege,” Dr. Stein said. “I try to do everything in the spirit of service.”
After graduating from the University of San Carlos School of Medicine in Guatemala City in 1975, Dr. Stein came to the U.S. for his residency. By that time, he already had mastered English through a three-month immersion program at Saint Louis University, a course which Dr. Stein enrolled in after his brother helped secure a scholarship.
Dr. Stein completed his specialty and subspecialty training at institutions affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and then stayed in the Houston area to launch a pediatric career that has now spanned nearly four decades. During that time, he has become teacher, advocate and leader in the area of chronically ill children as survivors of intensive care.
In the 1980s, he established the “progressive care unit” at Texas Children’s Hospital, initially as a four-bed immediate care unit that offered an “in-hospital home” for technology-dependent children. The unit — which has grown to 36 beds and more than 1,600 admissions per year — now serves as a national model for transitional care of children.
More than 1,300 residents have rotated through the unit, where they learn the intricacies of caring for children with technological dependency and the complexities of chronic care, reimbursement, and social and educational reincorporation. Dr. Stein’s approach and work ethic provide an invaluable lesson about the purpose of pediatrics, his former residents said.
“You’ve got to be a good leader to be a good clinician, and he was way ahead of the curve,” said Michele Mariscalco, M.D., FCCM, FAAP, who now is a pediatrics professor and regional dean at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign. “He’s a good example of coming back to what we really are as pediatricians. We are doctors of children, whatever their needs. He understands the complexities of diseases in the context of kids.”
Highlights global perspectives
Outside the hospital walls, Dr. Stein has been a tireless campaigner for children’s health care issues around the globe. An honorary member of more than a dozen international medical societies, he has been a technical adviser for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses of the Pan American Health Organization and has long advocated on behalf of children in impoverished environments.
At the national level, he is a founding member of the AAP Section of Critical Care and past member of the Council on Sections Management Committee and Committee on Membership. He also is one of the original members of the Academy’s former Task Force on Minorities.
His efforts have earned him numerous awards, including the Clifford G. Grulee Award, which recognizes outstanding service to the Academy beyond that required of the elected leadership. Earlier this year, he received the Robertson Presidential Award for Excellence in Education, Baylor’s most prestigious, college-wide, competitive award for faculty educational service.
At Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Dr. Stein is surrounded by team members surprised by a finding on the MRI of a critically ill child.“Dr. Stein is a compassionate and empathic leader who leads by bringing out the best in those he works with. His collaborative nature raises the bar of everyone around him,” said Jeanine M. Graf, M.D., FAAP, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Texas Children’s Hospital. “(He) has the experience and vision to champion children and the pediatricians who serve them from multiple perspectives, as a father, grandfather, pediatrician and critical care physician.”
If chosen to be the Academy’s next president-elect, Dr. Stein intends to use the office to unify the AAP mission across all chapters. He also would push for a more global perspective on issues such as poverty, hunger and gun violence.
“The very strategies that have worked in Latin America haven’t been used here because we say we’re First World. But the reality is we have pockets in metro areas that are Third World in some respects,” he said. “We must look at the world as one and that we are one people. We’re all at the same game, just some of us are in skyboxes and some of us are in the bleachers. Let’s pull this mission together and get everybody to work.”
Eclectic interests
In his free time, Dr. Stein engages in eclectic interests, including photography, magic and dancing. He and his wife, Vilma, who have a daughter and two grandchildren, also enjoy cooking together.
He returns to Guatemala at least four times a year. As part of his dedication to his birth country, he helped endow a hospital in an impoverished area there in Dr. Gustavo Castañeda Palacios’ memory.
And now as he runs for the Academy’s highest office, Dr. Stein can’t help but imagine his role model’s reaction to his efforts and career.
“Dr. Castañeda Palacios often called me a hyperactive child that did well,” he said. “I know he would say, ‘Fernando, it doesn’t surprise me that at the age when everyone is winding down, you’re gearing up.’”
