Arlington Heights physician's new foundation will help women in need

Nurses in Northwest Community Hospital's Labor and Delivery Unit spent an emotional night on Sunday. Working with veteran obstetrician Dr. Peter Geittmann, they helped a high risk mother successfully deliver a healthy baby boy.

Geittmann estimates that he has delivered more than 5,000 babies since he joined the staff of Northwest Community in 1981, but this was his last obstetrics call. However, he still will see patients at his Northwest Women's Consultants office in Arlington Heights until October.

Noting that it was his last delivery, nurses surrounded him in tears and captured the moment in photos. On Monday, tributes to Geittmann began pouring into the medical practice's Facebook page.

"Working with you was always a pleasure," wrote nurses Amanda Stoeckel. "Your calm demeanor and bedside manner with patients, and your expertise in the field is superb and beyond compare."

While Geittmann may be winding down, he still plans to continue helping mothers and their babies. Working with his wife, Marge, the couple established the Dr. Peter Geittmann Foundation whose mission is to help uninsured and underinsured women and their babies facing catastrophic medical events.

The couple ambitiously hopes to raise $1 million this year to fund the mission, and have begun soliciting corporate sponsors and individual donors.

They also announced a gala, aptly called "Delivering It Forward," to be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel.

"These are women who have inadequate insurance coverage or no coverage, and might not qualify for Medicaid," Geittmann says. "It can be a financially devastating situation."

In the ER at Northwest Community Hospital recently, he saw a 39-year-old mother of four who was thought to have an ectopic pregnancy. After tests, Geittmann determined it was an ovarian tumor.

"The mother didn't speak English, so her teenage daughter was interpreting for her," Geittmann said. "As I discussed her treatment, and that it would probably lead to a complicated surgery and intensive chemotherapy, her daughter quietly asked, 'Is chemo expensive?' They had no idea what they were potentially facing."

Geittmann said he became aware of how devastating a diagnosis can be financially as far back as his residency in the late 1970s, at Northwestern University's McGaw Medical Center.

He describes treating a woman battling cancer, who had exhausted her financial resources. She was denied Medicaid coverage, she was forced to sell a property she had hoped to develop into a retirement home.

"Here she is, suffering from a potentially fatal disease and facing financial ruin." Geittmann says. "Nothing has changed."

For information on the foundation, the gala and ways to donate, visit www.drgeittmannfoundation.com.