The entire team at UBMD Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine mourns the loss of Dr. Craig E. Blum, professor emeritus at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, who passed away Wednesday, August 4, 2021 at the age of 72.
Please read the below tribute to Dr. Blum written by Dr. Michael Ferrick, pediatric orthopaedic surgeon:
Dr. Craig Blum became the first fellowship trained pediatric orthopaedic surgeon in the Western New York area in 1981 after graduating from one of the premier pediatric orthopaeidc fellowships in the country, the Alfred I. du Pont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Blum’s passion and vocation was taking care of children and parents. When he wasn’t spending time with his own family, which included his wife and four kids, Dr. Blum wanted to treat kids with orthopaedic problems more than anything else. Dr. Blum was a superb surgeon, but he had a particular skill in the non-operative treatment of pediatric orthopaedic problems. His casting skills and ability to correct problems without surgery are legendary.
Dr. Blum became part of our UB Orthopaedic Department well before any current active member, starting residency in our department in 1976. When he returned to the Western New York area to begin his practice in 1981, he immediately became an integral part of teaching pediatric orthopaedics to residents and medical students for the next 30 years. Dr. Blum was always the first one to arrive at teaching conferences with the residents. He had a particular aptitude for leading a young surgeon in training through a surgery, giving residents independence in the operating room while ensuring that the patient was receiving the very best orthopaedic surgical care. Dr. Blum never said no to a request to see a patient whether it was adding on an extra patient during an already busy clinic, driving across town to see a newborn at another hospital, or driving to a neighborhood in WNY to make a house call. He was an old school hometown style doc with modern pediatric orthopaedic knowledge and skills. Our department and the pediatric patients and their families will surely miss him.