Supporters Like You

Pelofsky, whose mother and father immigrated to New York from Poland, grew up in a small apartment in Brooklyn, his parents working hard at several jobs to support the family. Pelofsky’s goal of becoming a doctor seemed lost until an unexpected connection with Oklahoma occurred. His older brother, who was in the Air Force, was being sent to Oklahoma State University to earn his doctorate in electrical engineering. His brother encouraged Pelofsky to join the military as well, but he didn’t want to at the time. Instead, he applied to several medical schools and asked for scholarships.

“I was accepted into a few medical schools on the East Coast, but they were too expensive,” he said. “I had applied to the OU College of Medicine because my brother was in Oklahoma, and they accepted me and gave me a scholarship. From that point on, I’ve always had a debt to repay to the state of Oklahoma because I couldn’t have had my career without the medical school and the scholarship.”

After earning his undergraduate degree at Long Island University in Brooklyn, Pelofsky entered the OU College of Medicine in 1962, graduating in 1966 with top honors. He stayed on campus for his internship year, focusing six months each on surgery and medicine. Then one day in 1967, he opened a letter from the U.S. government saying he was being drafted into the Navy. His first assignment was at the San Diego Naval Hospital, where he worked as a general medical officer in a walk-in clinic. Because he was more familiar with surgery, he spoke with the surgery department chairman, who gave him the lone resident spot in surgery that had not been filled. His first assignment was on the neurosurgical service.

“The only thing I knew about neurosurgery was the TV show ‘Ben Casey,’” Pelofsky said. “I became the general medical officer for this group of 10 Navy neurosurgeons and helped with cases, did histories and physicals, anything they needed me to do.”

At the end of that year, Pelofsky was notified that he would be going to a field hospital (MASH Unit) in Da Nang, Vietnam. Because he had been exposed to neurosurgery, he was again assigned to the neurosurgical unit, and while he was there, decided that he would indeed like to become a certified neurosurgeon himself.

“The issue was, how do you become a neurosurgeon when you’re in Da Nang?” Pelofsky said. “I wrote a letter to Dr. John Schilling, chairman of the Department of Surgery (at the OU College of Medicine) and said, ‘I’d like to be a neurosurgeon, but I can’t come for an interview because I’m 9,000 miles away in Vietnam. Is there any way you can help me?’”

Months later, he received good news in the mail: He would have a neurosurgery residency spot waiting for him when he got out of the military. In 1969, he came home and started his residency, working at a total of five hospitals on campus and around Oklahoma City. When he finished his four years as a resident, he joined the practice of what is now known as Neuroscience Specialists in Oklahoma City, later serving as president of the group. He and his partners also developed the Neuroscience Institute in Oklahoma City. Working with the architect of the new building, Pelofsky helped develop and design the glass pyramid structure, imbuing it with his love of science and art. In 1999, he and his partners developed and built the Oklahoma Spine Hospital.

Pelofsky’s clinical focuses were brain surgery, pituitary surgery, peripheral nerve surgery and surgery of the spine. His colleagues have long characterized him as a doctor who always put his patients first and prioritized communication with both patients and families. For Pelofsky, it was as simple as listening to his mother’s advice.

“When my mother learned that I was going to be a doctor, she said, ‘Just be nice.’ And I’ll tell you, just being nice is the key to establishing a healthy, positive and productive patient-doctor relationship,” he said. “Let the patient talk. Let them tell you what’s wrong without interrupting them. In two or three minutes, they’ll tell you, 95% of the time, what’s the matter with them and give you a direction into how to diagnose and treat them.”

“When patients come to a neurosurgeon, they are often scared and hurting,” he added. “When I see a patient for the first time, I break the ice by saying, ‘Hey, what’s a nice person like you doing in a place like this?’ They realize I’m a human being and I’m interested in what their issues are and how I can help them. It sounds so simple, but it’s amazing.”

In addition to his legacy of excellent patient care and surgery, Pelofsky changed the neurosurgical field through his service to national and international neurosurgical organizations. His initial involvement was as president of the Oklahoma State Neurosurgical Society for eight years, followed by serving as president of the National State Council of Neurological Societies. In 2001, he was elected president of the American Association of Neurologic Surgeons, the largest neurosurgical association in the world. He worked with the organization for 20 years on clinical, academic and research issues. In 2013, he was presented the Lifetime Neurological Service Achievement Award. He served in various capacities with many other state and national organizations.

Pelofsky retired in 2020 in a process he compares to landing a plane. “After 51 years, I landed the plane and tried to make it a smooth landing,” he said. “I walked away from it feeling totally connected to this state, to my profession and to the OU College of Medicine.”

During his long career, Capehart was passionate about educating young physicians and medical students not only in clinical medicine but also in medical ethics and humanities. Now retired, he has had time to reflect on his career and how he approached situations and decisions, comparing and contrasting them to the environment, attitudes and morals that new doctors face today. The result of his introspection is the creation of a $2 million endowed professorship for medical ethics at the OU College of Medicine.

“In today’s climate, there are many medical issues and ethical issues that those in the medical field are encountering — be that as a physician, nurse or other provider,” Capehart said. “The OU College of Medicine did not have a professorship or program directly pointed toward medical/ethical problems, and with the medical school being a training center, I feel that this professorship will stimulate research on the ethics of human research, clinical practice, public health, and medical innovation, in addition to exposing students to these issues early in their training.”

Physicians are required to make challenging judgment calls and hold themselves to high medical ethics standards, which minimizes errors and fosters trust, accountability, and respect between physicians and their patients, Capehart said.

“While making these challenging judgement calls, the physician must act within several strictures,” he said. “Number one: the legal stricture, the law, may dictate one way or another. They must decide what is acceptable and appropriate care from a medical viewpoint, and then what is acceptable from the patient’s viewpoint.

“You also have strictures within the hospital. The hospital may, in some cases, dictate what can happen in a medical situation. Finally, you have insurance companies, third party carriers who may say ‘no, we won’t do this or that’ and they work to make a decision go another way because of money,” he added.

“All these things don’t always flow in the same direction. Those parties are often obtuse to each other. Still, any decision has to be in the strictures of what is legal. Then the decision comes back to the physician. … What does he/she do?”

One of Capehart’s main goals in establishing the professorship is to simply call attention to an area that he felt was not being adequately addressed. “You need to have a very open discussion in order to come to a conclusion that is correct in a legal fashion, and in a medical fashion and in an ethical fashion,” he said. “It’s a tough area to be in because there are so many conflicting forces that are pulling in different ways.”

He also wants to take ethics discussions into the public arena. “I read a story about a physician in another state who said that if his patients did not take the vaccine recommended by the government, he would not see them as a patient any longer,” Capehart said. “Is that ethical? I don’t have an answer and you don’t have an answer, but it’s something we ought to have an answer to, and the only way you’re going to arrive at it is to have a discussion. There just needs to be more discussion and more involvement.”

The Capehart Endowed Chair for Medical Ethics will be established as part of the planned legacy of Capehart and his wife, Diana, a former surgical nurse. They live in Tulsa.

Capehart is a 1965 graduate of the OU College of Medicine. During his internship at St. John’s Medical Center in Tulsa, he decided to focus on colorectal surgeries. He was instrumental in building Tulsa Medical College, which became the OU-TU School of Community Medicine. He served as the first chair of the Department of Family Medicine and the first program director for the family practice residency.

Dr. Donat, who died in 2016, was a 1962 graduate of the OU College of Medicine, and he stayed on campus to complete his residency and fellowship. He was a founding member of Urology Associates in Oklahoma City. He also served in Vietnam as chief of urology at the 8th Field Hospital, earning a Bronze Star.

As his private practice got underway, he quickly earned a reputation as a skilled surgeon and a compassionate presence for his patients. “He loved his patients, and they loved him,” Anna said. “They were more than just patients — they were his family.”

Dr. Donat perfected the perineal prostatectomy to remove cancer of the prostate, performing more than 6,000 of the surgeries during his career. He researched the use of ultrasound for imaging the prostate and presented the results to Medicare, earning approval for its use. He also taught the first course on laparoscopic surgery in urology to Oklahoma residents and fellows. Because of his surgical reputation, he was asked to teach perineal surgery at M.D. Anderson and laparoscopic node biopsy and perineal prostatectomy in Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Donat especially loved sharing his experience with OU College of Medicine residents and fellows, whom he taught for over 40 years. To recognize his dedication, the Department of Urology presented him its inaugural Pioneer in Urology award. “He was a great educator,” Anna said. “He never made people feel inferior about asking questions. He was a very personable teacher and took the time to illustrate and explain what he wanted people to know.”

Dr. Donat was also instrumental in the life and medical education of his niece, S. Machele Donat, M.D., who is now a urologic oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She also earned her medical degree from the OU College of Medicine and completed her residency on campus.

Anna and Paul Donat both attended John Marshall High School in Oklahoma City, though they didn’t know each other then. They first met in the 1970s, when Anna worked as a nurse and cared for his surgical patients in the hospital recovery room. One day he asked her if she would consider working at his medical practice, and she said yes.

In 2000, they married. Dr. Donat continued his practice for 14 more years. “Paul’s life was his family and medicine, and he loved it,” Anna said. “That’s why he kept working so long.”

Just six months after retirement, Dr. Donat was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Working with Department of Urology Chair Michael Cookson, M.D., Dr. Donat began the process of fulfilling his dream of creating an endowed chair. Although he died before it was established, he knew Anna would finish the effort. She has made significant gifts to fund the Dr. Paul Donat Chair.

“He would be thrilled to know that we are seeing it through to completion,” Anna said. “I see visions of it growing, and I hope it will benefit many, many people.”

Cookson called Dr. Donat a true pioneer in urologic surgery. “He was at the forefront of new surgical approaches to prostate and other urological cancers, and he was a gifted innovator in the field,” Cookson said. “However, perhaps one of his greatest achievements was passing his knowledge and expertise to other surgeons, including residents. And now, with the establishment of the endowed chair in his honor, the tradition will live on in perpetuity as OU Urology carries this forward. His ambition and commitment to excellence in patient care, coupled with cutting-edge advancements in minimally invasive surgery, are alive and well today. We are truly blessed and thankful to Dr. Paul Donat and his wife, Anna, for their kindness and generosity to the OU College of Medicine and the Department of Urology.”