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| | Richard Grossman, M.D., Revered So Cal Burn Specialist, Dies At Age 81
By Jorge Alexandria - March 18, 2014
By the time we reach our seventies, most of us will have experienced a moment when--for the time--the reality that we may actually die today, tomorrow, or in the very near term, sets in. I was there at a location in Southern California attending a panel discussion on “Acute and Post-Acute Burn Injuries” in 2008, when the renowned plastic and reconstructive surgeon and founder of the Grossman Burn Centers, Dr. A. Richard Grossman, had such a moment and talked openly about possibly retiring entirely and passing the torch to his son, Dr. Peter Grossman, then the co-director of the Grossman Burn Centers. The elder Grossman eventually retired in January 2013.
On Thursday, March 13, 2014, Dr. A. Richard Grossman passed away at his home in Thousand Oaks. He was 81 years old. The cause of death has not been determined but some surmise it may relate to complications of a kidney transplant he had three years ago.
Alan Richard Grossman was born Jan. 12, 1933, in Hillside, New Jersey, on a farm. At age 12, Grossman moved to Miami with his family and it was there that he decided he wanted to be a doctor. His two brothers also became doctors.
After receiving a bachelor's degree from Emory University in Atlanta, Richard Grossman earned a medical degree from the University of Tennessee and did his internship and residency at Cook County.
Dr. Grossman, who was married four times and divorced three, is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; his son, Peter, a doctor who now heads the burn center; another son, Jeffrey of New York; a stepson John Larson; brothers Joel and Jack Grossman, both of Miami; and five grandchildren.
The face of this burn victim, lower right, after treatment and surgery graced this poster of the Grossman Burn Center at the ISYS Burn Seminar on March 27th 2012. The victim had been burned so severely that her chin and neck had melded into her chest. photo by Lonce LaMon; all rights reserved.
In a 1985 Los Angeles Times interview, Grossman said his first two wives grew tired of "playing mistress to a job." He and Elizabeth Grossman were married for the past 14 years.
The workers’ compensation professional community is deeply saddened by the death of Dr. Grossman who was a pillar in this community. In a 1992 interview, Dr. Grossman told an interviewer that he was inspired to work with burn patients by a parochial school fire in Chicago, where he was an emergency room doctor at the Cook County Hospital in 1958. "I had to count 98 children, all suffocated or burned to death. The catastrophe indelibly stayed in my mind," he said.
At the time of the Chicago tragedy, not much could be done for victims of severe burns. As new techniques were developed, Grossman stayed abreast of advances and ultimately become the leading expert. By 1970 he founded the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, California. By 1978, the ward had expanded to 30 beds and was the nation's largest private burn center.
Dr. Peter Grossman, son of Dr. Richard Grossman, reaches over and squeezes his father's hand in a gesture of affection during the ISYS Burn Seminar on March 27th 2012 at the Anaheim Crowne Plaza Hotel. photo by Lonce LaMon; all rights reserved.
After 40 years in Sherman Oaks, the center relocated to West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in 2010. Grossman Burn Centers also have been established in Bakersfield, Phoenix, and Kansas City, Mo. His son, Dr. Peter H. Grossman, who joined the center in 1995 and is now medical director, once said that if he could have only one of his father's skills, it would be the rapport he had with patients.
A famous patient of Dr. Richard Grossman was Richard Pryor, the comedian who sustained third-degree burns over 50% of his body in a fire at his home in 1980 which was caused while he was freebasing cocaine. Richard Grossman also treated survivors of plane crashes and firefighters injured on the job in local wildfires. The latter made him an endearing hero to the thrones of claims examiners working on municipal workers compensation accounts (as myself- via the County of Los Angeles).
In the Fall of 1993, firefighters had the rare chance to pay back Dr. Grossman as they stood poised to defend his ranch house from Malibu wildfires.
Rest in peace Dr. Grossman and vaya con Dios.
Jorge Alexandría is a U.S. Army veteran who received his B.A. in Political Science from Cal State Los Angeles, and graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.
He holds both a California Workers Compensation Claims Professional (WCCP) designation and the State of California’s Self-Insured Administrator’s License. He has more than 20 years of experience in claims handling, supervision, and risk management.
He currently practices federal workers’ compensation of maritime interest.
He can be reached at Riskletter@mail.com. The views and knowledge expressed in this article are Jorge Alexandría’s alone.
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