Dr. Milton Werner, the United States' most eminent expert on
hemangioma surgery (facial vascular malformations and non-
malignant growths) was in Israel last month as the guest of
Rabbi Elimelech Firrer, chairman of the Ezra Umarpeh
chessed organization.
Dr. Werner gained worldwide medical acclaim due to his unique
technique for performing surgery on patients with non-
malignant facial growths. His method has resulted in a
revolution in the treatment of severe facial blemishes in
children born with vascular and hemangioma blemishes who had
previously remained with partial growths and large facial
scars even after plastic surgery.
With his unique method, Dr. Werner succeeds in removing the
entire growth in one operation, which sometimes takes more
than fourteen consecutive hours. During the course of the
operation, blood vessels surrounding the growth are repaired
and only a centimeter-long scar remains, which eventually
disappears during adolescence!
Dr. Werner, a Torah-observant Jew and the director of the
Hemangioma Surgical Department in the Little Rock Hospital in
Arkansas, has successfully operated upon hundreds of children
from all over the world in recent years.
Dr. Werner has hundreds of pictures of children who arrived
in the hospital with large blemishes which contorted their
entire face. A number of days after their operations, the
children were released without growths and without scars. The
pictures which Dr. Werner showed of children described his
success better than a thousand words, and pointed to the
siyata deShmaya which has accompanied Dr. Werner.
His method has been hailed in medical journals as well as the
American press as having brought succor to so many children
with severe growths and facial contortions. The fact that he
is Torah-observant is often stressed in these articles.
Parents reported on the physical and emotional improvements
of their children as a result of the successful surgery.
On his visit to Ezra Umarpeh's headquarters, Dr. Werner
agreed to Rabbi Firrer's request to offer free advice to
parents of the scores of children who arrived at Ezra Umarpeh
to see him. Dr. Werner was so impressed by the organization
and the spirit of its hundreds of volunteers that he also
volunteered his services, saying that in special cases he
would operate on children without his usual fees. In such
cases, the parents would only have to pay for
hospitalization.
Dr. Werner promised to continue to visit Ezra Umarpeh twice a
year, in order to spare families the difficulties entailed by
coming to the United States. He also promised to conduct
minor treatments in hospitals throughout Israel.
At the end of his visit to Ezra Umarpeh, Dr. Werner visited
the Schneider Hospital for Children, where he lectured to
hospital doctors about his unique treatment. At the end of
his visit, a number of parents told him that they intend to
come to Little Rock for operations in his department.
Dr. Werner's visit was a unique, widely acclaimed initiative
on the part of Ezra Umarpeh's Rabbi Elimelech Firrer.
