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FEBRUARY 2006

Dr. Henri Ford, Pediatric Surgeon Extraordinaire

by Joan Baum, Ph.D.

It was quite a leap for Haitian-born Henri Ford who knew no English to attend John Jay High School in Brooklyn—where he was called “Frenchie”—and then go on for his B.A. at Princeton, not to mention moving from there in record time to Harvard Medical School, but for this Vice President and Chief of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine (USC), affiliated with Children’s Hospital, “leaps” are “challenges.” In fact, he laughs, recalling a saying of a classmate years ago, “excellence will silence all your critics.” Considering Dr. Ford’s considerable reputation as a surgeon and as a heavily funded and much published researcher in pediatric surgery, his specialty, it must be pretty quiet out there.

Dr. Ford modestly refers to his John Jay H.S. days as a time of “difficult transition.” Not knowing English, “the boy from Haiti,” as he was known, could hardly have expected a welcoming team, but he wound up getting a fine education. When he got to Princeton, thanks to a summer language tutor in high school who urged him on, he recalls how his first year there was one of “culture shock.” All those fancy cars—late models, of course—but Henri Ford had a good line ready – “I parked my bus on the street.”  By the end of the year, he felt entirely comfortable. Indeed, he says that his undergraduate days were “the four happiest years” of his life. It was where he met his wife and where he a pursued a B.A. in public and international affairs, with a special interest in Latin American politics, graduating cum laude in 1980 and responding to what he felt was a need for social change. 

But Dr. Ford loves challenge, and though his college major served him well, he turned to medicine almost inevitably, though he did toy with going to graduate school, law school, and the Kennedy School of Government. “I was, in a sense, delivered to science,” he says, for a number of reasons, including the fact that an older sister, an inspirational figure, who also went to JJHS, persisted with her studies, despite the loss of an eye and multiple surgeries. Then there were mentors, and sisters married to doctors, but most of all, it was the surgery rotation of his third-year at medical school that sealed the choice—he “fell in love with surgery,” and in particular with helping children. A friend, now the chief of surgery at Children’s National who “takes credit for my career!” had spoken glowingly of pediatric surgery.”

Dr. Ford has been at Children’s Hospital for a little over a year, having left the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he was an attending surgeon, a member of the faculty, and co-director of the Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Magee-Women’s Hospital at the University. He also held the Benjamin R. Fisher Chair in Pediatric Surgery at the School of Medicine. Under what colleagues called his “exceptional leadership,” pediatric trauma and pediatric surgical research programs reached enviable new heights. So why did he leave and go to California? Well, the population of children in Pittsburgh was shrinking and, well, “challenge.” Dr. Ford’s work on the “pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis—the most common and lethal disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract of newborn infants”—has led to exciting insights into the diagnosis, treatment, and pre-natal prevention. Why do some children develop these internal problems and not others? Is necrotizing enterocolitis genetic and to what extent? If any, his research lab will get the answer.

Though it may strike some as ironic, Dr. Ford credits among his achievements being an active voice on behalf of no surgery, “pushing the envelope” with traumatologists who work children, especially those suffering from spleen, liver or kidney disorders, to explore other treatments because “non-op management” is less risky.  Of course, Dr. Ford sees a lot of young victims of AIDS and a good part of his life’s work these days is also taken up with educating parents, especially young mothers with drug addiction problems, who are more prone than others to have premature babies. He also addresses parents on how to protect their children from injury—installing window gates, ensuring playground safety.  He is proud to complete the circle—inspired by mentors he has become a highly revered and beloved one himself.#

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