Pediatrician's Philosophy Helps Kids Heal

from Children's Magazine, Fall 2004

Pediatrician Jay Rabinowitz, with
patients Emma and Matthew Jones,
began practicing in 1982 and trained
at The Children's Hospital.

Jay Rabinowitz,a pediatrician at ParkerPediatrics, goes out of his way to treat his special-needs patients the same as every other child.

It keeps them from dwelling on their diseases, he said, and helps them keep a positive outlook.

And it’s a philosophy that seems to be paying off – especially for 6-year-old patient Abbi White-Hulce, who has Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).

“Her condition is something to be aware of,” Dr. Rabinowitz said, “but we want her to be able to do what other kids do, within reason.”

He’s not surprised that Abbi is so active and loves horseback riding and swimming, even though many children with EB aren’t nearly as active.

“She’s always had this disease, so she’s not used to anything else,” he said. “She’s adapted to it quite well. She wants to go to school and wants to do a lot of things, and she just goes for it. I think it’s great. She’s very courageous.”

Dr. Rabinowitz, who started his practice in 1982 and trained at The Children’s Hospital, had never seen a child with EB before he met Abbi.  He had seen children with similar lesions from drug reactions and the like, but neither he nor his colleagues had ever encountered dystrophic EB, which is very rare, affecting just two out of every 100,000 children born in the U.S. each year.

But he was undaunted.

“We have all kinds of patients with multiple problems,” he said. “They are in our community, they come to us and we see them.  It’s as simple as that. We don’t look at them and say ‘You’re too difficult. Go somewhere else.’ If it’s a tough case, we’ll deal with it.”

Abbi already had been seen by specialists from Children’s and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) when her mother, Chrishana, brought her into Dr. Rabinowitz’s office right after birth. Dr. Rabinowitz took notes on Abbi’s initial history and gave her a physical. And soon after, he got busy researching EB. He also learned a great deal from the consult letters sent to him by Children’s doctors.

“I wanted to make sure all the support systems were in place to take care of the entire person,” he said.

At first, Abbi saw just one type of specialist – dermatologists at Children’s and UCHSC. But as she got older, Dr. Rabinowitz said, she needed to see more specialists, including occupational therapists, gastroenterologists and optometrists. Dr. Rabinowitz would refer her to Children’s downtown location, and the doctors there would see Abbi and send their notes to Dr. Rabinowitz.

But with the opening of The Children’s Hospital at Parker Adventist Hospital, he said, Abbi can see many of her specialists closer to her Centennial home.

Over the years, Dr. Rabinowitz has seen Abbi for routine physicals, immunizations and ear infections – “those kind of things that kids get,” he said. Abbi also has some other medical issues that most children don’t, such as anemia and recurring skin infections.

But Abbi is unlike Dr. Rabinowitz’s other patients in other ways, as well.

“She’s absolutely braver than other kids,” he said. “She’s so nice and friendly when she comes in, even though she knows she may have to get blood drawn or whatever. She’s a real trouper.”

Over the six years he’s taken care of Abbi, Dr. Rabinowitz said he’s learned a great deal about the disease.

“It probably takes one EB patient to become an expert, knowing all the possible complications of it,” he said. “We all sort of learn as we go along.”