Remembering
Dr. Mayer Eisenstein
We Joyfully Remember Dr. Mayer Eisenstein
by Phillip C. DeMio, MD
We Joyfully Remember Dr. Mayer Eisenstein
by Phillip C. DeMio, MD
The news recently came to us, in late December, that our
friend Dr. Mayer Eisenstein had suddenly died. If you knew him like we did you
are sure he is looking over us with a warm reassuring smile saying, "Don't
worry, it's all right," though we are shocked & saddened at the loss
of such a fine man and doctor just the same. This comes at the end of a year,
2014, where we had already seen the passing of two leaders who helped those
persons disabilities: Louis J. Joyce who was one of the very first if not the
first special education teacher for children in the U.S. (having been helping
and believing in the educational potential of challenged kids & adults in
Ohio by the early 1960's), and Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless (author of Children with
Starving Brains, who helped to spread information worldwide about those
affected with spectrum disorders). We will miss them all, with the loss of Dr.
Eisenstein being the most recent.
Mayer Eisenstein was born in China after his family left
Europe after WW II. His family later moved to the US, where he eventually
became a physician. From that moment he continued a life of helping people.
Along the way, though, he also became a lawyer and a master of public health,
and he drew from these skills to help his patients on a daily basis. He was
intelligent, informed, well-spoken, and a very staunch supporter of patients'
rights to be informed & to have choices in care. Somehow there's where
Mayer Eisenstein, MD, JD, MPH was viewed as controversial simply for standing
up as a doctor for patients' rights & choices when they sought care for
their loved ones. People took shots at him, all because he wanted you to know your
rights.
Dr. Eisenstein wanted you to have access to information
about choices in healthcare, with him as a physician guiding you along. His 40
plus years of practice, just taken at face value, had a minimum if any severe
or chronic disease, with virtually little to no asthma nor autism in the many
babies he delivered at home. Dr Eisenstein's tireless devotion to his patients
led him on the four decade trek to helping people day in & day out, not
just by being their good doctor. He also knew he had to assure that their right
to choice in health care, based on the right in turn of patients &
families, to be truly informed so they could make a real choice.
It is distressingly often that we are at a medical encounter
where a stack of consent forms are pushed at us and, whereby many persons are
unknowingly put through a mill without ever having truly been informed at all.
A person cannot at all agree to the surgery, the drug or even a test in such a
setting, unless we are guided to information. That's why you bring yourself or
your loved one to see a physician. Dr. Eisenstein knew, and practiced this
every day and with every breath. He continually stood up for patients and their
families to medically get what they wanted & needed. I saw it in action.
On one occasion another physician voiced the opinion to put
patients second and essentially to sell out to the power structures, leaving
patients defenseless. Dr. Eisenstein responded swiftly and effectively with a
fury and eloquent and informed argument effectively squashing the other
doctor's proposal. The very idea was anathema to Dr. Eisenstein. His knowledge
and incontrovertible statements once again protected patients. We always have
been, and we still are energized by his dedication, his energy, his warmth, and
his caring demeanor.
Rest in peace Mayer. Somehow, though, I think you've taken
that magical energy of yours to a higher place where it belonged all along. I
am proud to have called Mayer Eisenstein my friend, and we will all miss him
very much.
Phillip C DeMio, MD US Asperger & Autism Association, Chief Medical Officer
