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In Memmorial: Nathan Rifkinson MD FACS
Dr. Nathan Rifkinson died on March 21, 2010 after a very long productive life in Medicine. He was 97.
He graduated from Emory University Medical School and interned in New York. He began his medical career as a general practitioner in Greenwich Village in New York City. One day, while rounding at a school for German World War II refugee children, he overheard doctors speaking of the need for physicians in the new US Virgin Islands. The next day he canceled his office appointments and went to Washington, D.C., to see the Secretary of the Interior who introduced Dr. Rifkinson to the then governor of the USVI's, Lawrence Cramer. Subsequently, Dr. Rifkinson became an appointee of the Federal Government to The United States Virgin Islands where he worked as the health commissioner for three years.
Living on St. John Dr. Rifkinson was at once a general practitioner, a public health official, a researcher, and a pathologist. He sent many specimens to the pathologist Dr. Enrrique Koppish at the School of Tropical Medicine in San Juan.
He eventually decided to pursue a career in pathology. In 1942 he moved to Puerto Rico where he worked as a pathologist under Dr. Enrique Koppish at the School of Tropical Medicine and the Bayamon District Hospital. During his tenure as a pathologist the many brain tumors, abscesses, penetrating brain injuries and other pathologies that plagued the population intrigued him. He considered a fellowship in neuropathology in the United States. It was Dr. Antonio Acosta Velarde, then in charge of all the District Hospitals in Puerto Rico, who encouraged Dr. Rifkinson to pursue neurosurgery. He was accepted at the Washington University neurosurgery residency training program in St. Louis, Missouri, under Dr. Ernest Sachs. At the time, this was one of the most prestigious residency programs in neurosurgery in North America. Dr. Sachs had trained under Dr. Harvey Cushing, and would be one to train many who eventually became Chiefs, Chairmen, and Program Directors throughout the world. Initially offered a scholarship by the Island government, the direct interference of then governor Dr. Rexford Tugwell proved necessary to make the residency in neurosurgery a reality. However, this financial support was suddenly withdrawn at the end of his second year of residency, forcing Dr. Rifkinson and his wife to barely make ends meet for the remainder of his training. Despite the let down by a politically motivated local government, Dr. Rifkinson returned to his adopted land and spent the next six decades dedicated to the people of Puerto Rico. For several years he was the only residency trained neurosurgeon in Puerto Rico and the USVIs. He began working in the academic field in the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine at its inception where he eventually became the Director of the Neurosurgery Section, a position that he held until 2002. He retired from surgery at 86 years of age.
From the moment he became the Neurosurgery Program Director he strived to teach science and moral values to his students. He encouraged initiative in research.
He actively engaged in teaching the art of surgery to everyone around him. He actively participated in the teaching and training of medical students, interns, and residents of all specialties. He was a common denominator to all of the medical graduates, residents and fellows of the Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. He trained every resident that graduated from the fully accredited Neurosurgery Residency until the moment came for him to step down and allow the younger generation to take over the helm of the neurosurgery ship he so wisely sailed for almost half a century.
Dr. Rifkinson never really retired from the "Service", as he called the Section of Neurosurgery. Up until the time a stroke weakened him in 2008 he would still hold a weekly clinic, visit the wards, counsel the residents, and encourage the younger attendings. He always had an opinion and theory on anything and everything having to do with his beloved "Service".
Dr. Nathan Rifkinson never passed away: He lives in the everyday lives of his many trainees and students who in more than one way are everyday silently living credit to his teachings.
Dr. Santos
Dr. Inserni
03/28/2010
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