For 47 years, when nervous children and families awaited their appointments at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), their fears were eased when a warm-hearted doctor named Leon Root reached out to greet them. Dr. Root, the talented and pioneering chief of pediatric orthopedics for 27 years, passed away on September 21, 2015. He was 87.
Dr. Root is survived by his wife Paula, his son, Matthew, his daughter, Lili, a brother, Benjamin, and four grandchildren.
Services were held on September 24, 2015 at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
Only three years after joining HSS in 1968, Dr. Root established New York City’s first clinic for children with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a congenital bone disorder characterized by brittle bones that are prone to fracture. People with OI are born with defective connective tissue, or without the ability to produce the tissue, usually because of a deficiency of type I collagen.
When Dr. Root recognized how difficult it was for many of the city’s children to come to him, he went to them, establishing the state’s first Pediatric Orthopedic Outreach Program (POP). Because of Dr. Root’s efforts, more than 26, 000 children have been screened in New York schools; 4, 000 of those children were referred for further medical care.
Lou Shapiro, CEO of HSS, told OTW, “My memorable moment of Dr. Root was actually captured in a beautiful photo of Dr. Root surrounded by smiling children from a school in the Bronx in New York. Dr. Root and a team of residents, fellows, nurses and members of our Education staff had just conducted the HSS POP school screening. The moment and photo speak volumes about Dr. Root. He was truly an outstanding person and physician that embodied the overall mission of HSS—to serve and care for the community. It is who he was and how he lived.”
Dr. Root was also one of the leading pediatric physicians who devoted a significant part of their practice, leadership and research to improving the lives of patients with cerebral palsy. He expanded the HSS Cerebral Palsy Clinic and served as president of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.
On the research front, Dr. Root helped found a rehabilitation department in order to collect and analyze data on how patients move; the department is now known as the Leon Root Motion Analysis Laboratory.
Asked what he thinks Dr. Root would like to be remembered for, Shapiro noted, “Dr. Root has been a member of the HSS family for 47 years and a wonderful role model for all of us. He would often reminisce about how there were only eight orthopedic surgeons at HSS in 1980; today we have more than 100. But even though the hospital has grown in size, in staff and in scope, he loved that fact that we remain a close-knit community committed to the total well-being of our patients and their families. He will be remembered as one of the nation’s foremost specialists in pediatric orthopedics and his legacy is his selfless care and tireless efforts to address the needs of the city’s underserved children.”
Dr. Cathleen Raggio, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at HSS, remembers Dr. Root with great fondness, noting, “Dr. Root is the reason I went into orthopedic surgery 30 years ago. I met him when I was a third-year medical student. When I told him I had already decided to do a pediatrics internship but now wanted to go into orthopedics and would have to do two internships, I said I hope that that’s not going to be a problem. He said, ‘That’s not a problem—this is great news! You’re going to do well. So what, you have to do two internships. It’ll be fine.’ That’s typical of Dr. Root—he turned everything into a positive and really encouraged you to do your best.”
Asked about his best intellectual gift, Dr. Raggio told OTW, “Dr. Root was very inquisitive. He would ask questions and always listened to the answers. That’s a very important quality. He not only asked “why” but he listened to what other people might suggest. Then he would follow through, think about it and research it.”
“The orthopedic community knows that Dr. Root really embodied what it meant to be a true mentor. He wanted you to be the best that you can be and wanted to bring out your strongest qualities. He encouraged you and was happy to see you succeed. It’s very rare that you find mentors who are so selfless. I think that’s the idea of being a mentor…you want your pupils to do well and sometimes they might even exceed your own expectations. Dr. Root was really a very special person to other orthopedic surgeons, residents and students. As for his patients, he really relished in how they overcame whatever handicap or adversity they faced—whether they needed orthopedic surgery or non-surgical intervention Dr. Root really inspired them to do and be their best.”
Leon Root attended Rutgers University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. He obtained his medical degree from New York Medical College in 1955, and interned as a general practitioner at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. He completed his residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, and then accepted a one-year fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he remained for the rest of his career.
Anyone wishing to honor the life and work of Dr. Root may make a donation to the Pediatric Orthopedic Outreach program at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
I love you, Dr. Root, and will forever be grateful for all you’ve done. It was a privilege and an honor knowing you. You’ve changed our lives forever.
Love and miss you Dr. Root. I can still hear your voice and the sound of your shoes coming down the hall to the exam room. My favorite Dr of all time, no one will EVER come close to you!