Prof. Daniel H. Teitelbaum, MD (1957–2016)

Prof. Daniel H. Teitelbaum, MD (1957–2016).

Our colleague and friend Daniel H. Teitelbaum passed away on August 17, 2016. He lost his battle with a brain tumor.

Daniel H. Teitelbaum earned his medical degree at the Ohio State College of Medicine in 1983. He was trained in general surgery and pediatric surgery at the Ohio University Hospital and Columbus Children's Hospital and started his career at the University of Michigan in 1992. He first served as assistant professor of surgery and became professor in 2004. Dan's particular clinical interests were short bowel syndrome, sexual development disorders, and colorectal malformations. Daniel focused his extensive scientific activities on parenteral and enteral nutrition including, short bowel syndrome. He worked in particular on intestinal adaptation, enterogenesis, the potential benefits of intestinal stem cells, aspects of the mucosal barrier, and gut microbiome. He recently presented an exciting device to grow the intestines of patients with a short bowel. As a result of his extensive research activities he gave more than 100 invited lectures, published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, and was funded by the National Institutes of Health for nearly two decades.

He recently served as the President of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, teaching and promoting optimal nutrition for many colleagues. As the Director of the pediatric surgery training program of the University of Michigan, Daniel was passionate about educating pediatric surgery fellows and training pediatric surgeons. He received the annual Section on Surgery American Academy of Pediatrics Salzberg Award for his teaching.

He was an extraordinary person with great passion, always devoted to his patients, to his research, to the field of pediatric surgery, and to various professional societies. Daniel was one of those few pediatric surgeons from the United States who are connected extensively to Europe. His activities for societies included in particular the International Pediatric Surgical Research and the European Pediatric Surgeons Association (EUPSA). Daniel H. Teitelbaum was honored by the EUPSA to give the European Congress Lecture at the annual meeting in Ljubljana in 2015, some weeks before the tumor was discovered.

Daniel H. Teitelbaum was always proud of his family. Together with his wife Mindy Teitelbaum with whom he was married for 29 years he had three daughters. A good life ended too early. We lost a marvelous colleague and real friend whom we will always remember.