Macedonian Tribune - Tribune Excerpts
Dr. George Daicoff's the name, heart's the game
The following article appeared in the November 2009 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
Dr. George Daicoff is a name familiar
to those who work in the field of Cardio
– Thoracic surgery or those who ever
needed a heart operation. His name also
is familiar to many Macedonians as one of
our kids from Gary, Indiana, who made a
name for himself.
Now retired, he specialized in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, general thoracic surgery as well as peripheral vascular surgery. In fact, he was the first to perform a heart transplant on an infant in Florida.
He not only studied and/or taught at five universities in the US, but also thanks to a grant from the Schweppes Foundation, attended several in England, the Netherlands and Scotland, as well as Paris and Zurich. For this reason he belongs to many cardio – thoracic professional organizations all over the world.
"Studying abroad expanded my outlook. I learned about British national health care systems in the process," he says. Always thinking he would return to Gary, his mentor at Indiana University steered him toward the University of Chicago. Since he had always been interested in the chest and surgery, he was assigned heart service, where he quickly learned, "The professors in the 1950s were learning about heart surgery at the same time they were teaching the students. It was an exciting and challenging time."
He accepted a residency there to
do research. Contrary to the notion that
research demanded a genius intellect,
he found that good research required
posing answerable questions, designing
an appropriate study and perseverance to
accomplish the given goals. He worked
to develop a model for pulmonary
hypertension.
"In the early years, a successful operation often was marred by the patients dying of pulmonary hypertension. I wrote papers on pulmonary embolisms (clots that travel)," he explains adding that eventually he received a Hartford Foundation grant for that work.
He knew his primary interest was in pediatrics and that programs were being developed in Florida. It was about this time he was recruited to Florida, which led to him building a program that exceeded other programs.
He also started looking at other things – grafts made of tissue, transplantation from other species as well as less surgical and more biomedical treatments – controlling hypertension and heart disease with such things as diet and exercise. Most of his clinical papers were on heart surgery in children.
"Going to Florida has been very good for me – not bad for a poor kid from Gary," says the St. Pete resident. Dr. Daicoff's roots run deep in the oldimmigration from Macedonia.
"My grandfather Nicholas Alabach (off) was a dyed–in–the wool Macedonian. He immigrated to Granite City, Ill., from Brushnik, near Monastir (today's Bitola), in 1903, or about that time. It was a time when the Niedringhaus brothers were developing Granite City Enamel Ware." (Editor's Note: In Granite City, our people settled in an area called Lincoln Place. The main street in that area is Niedringhaus.)
Back in Brushnik, the family owned a flourmill, which gave the young Nicholas means to build a hotel on Niedringhaus. It also housed a restaurant, laundry, grocery and bar. In turn, the hotel provided means to bring Baba Vassa and son John over.
Once in the US, the couple had three daughters – Dr. Diacoff's mother Helen, Dora and Olga. As with many Macedonian families, the son was educated; this didn't sit well with Helen, who not only completed high school, but also business courses to become a bookkeeper.
"At one point in Lincoln Place, there were many young boys from Macedonia. My grandfather was the facilitator who helped them.
"At this year's MPO Convention, I learned from Marvin Moehle of Granite City that my grandfather was known as 'king of Macedonia.'
"Dedo was sort of a Renaissance Man speaking several languages and serving as banker for the new arrivals. He also published an early newspaper called Makedonska Glas."
"In about 1916, my father Nick Daicoff came from a big clan in Banitza (Lerinsko) with his brother Boris and cousin Mike Daicoff, who later changed his name to Vanoff, and is Sandy Zajack's father. They kicked around between Granite City, working on the railroad in Montana, Huntington, W.Va., and Detroit."
"As my mother came of age, even though she had a boyfriend, my grandfather arranged her marriage to my father who was working for Granite City Foundry building undercarriages for train cars. They married in 1929."
"Soon after, they moved to Waukegan, Ill., where my father went into the estaurant business with his brother. They all lived in one house.
"Then the depression hit. My mother was pregnant and went back to Granite City, where I was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital.
"Everything collapsed. Dedo lost the hotel. We all moved to Gary—three generations in one house. Every day my father went to the steel mill with his lunch to see if there was any work. There wasn't.
"My dedo started a fruit stand, and my father started another fruit stand. He also worked at Coney Island for another Macedonian. Then my father and a partner started their own full–service restaurant called Beat 'm All. We lived upstairs. Eventually the partnership was in trouble.
"My father bought fresh fruits and vegetables at a market from a Macedonian farmer named Misho, who wore bib overalls and went barefoot. As my father related his partnership troubles to Misho, the farmer suggested he buy out his partner, and my father said, 'how?'
"Misho pulled $2000 out of his bib overalls and gave it to my father, who told the man he should put that much money in a bank. Misho answered, 'I do. It's in the Misho bank covered with hot peppers in the bottom of the big trunk at the foot of my bed'."
Cousin Sandy Zajack asked Dr. Daicoff to help her research family history by having his DNA tested. He found that the R1 A1 of the Y DNA shows the family comes from the Caucuses, while the Mt DNA shows a mixture prevalent in most Europeans. Dr. Diacoff's dedo and Sandy's dedo were brothers.
(Editor's note: The Y DNA found only in males carry more complete markers from both fathers and mothers, while the Mitochondrial DNA found in females only carry markers of the female line.) Dr. Daicoff is the father of five.
Daughter Susan is an attorney who graduated too young to practice so earned a masters in taxes at New York University. After working for a while in high–end legal and financial matters, she was unhappy making "rich people richer" so went on to earn a clinical psychology degree and produced a study Lawyer Personality. She has written a book Lawyer Know Thy Self about the warm and fuzzy side of law practices. She teaches law at Jacksonville developing a revolutionary program based on the book.
Son Nick is recovering from injuries suffered in a Humvee accident in Iraq. During recovery, he provides private Caribbean cruises. He is a graduate of Rippon College.
Son George Jr. is a graduate of the University of South Florida.
Daughter Catherine is working on Certified Public Accountant certification having graduated from Florida State at Tallahassee.
Son Mark Alexander ("I put a little Macedonia in his name.") attends junior college.
Dr. Daicoff was graduated in 1953 from IU with an A.B. degree and its medical school in 1956. He studied and became an assistant professor at Chicago from 1956 until 1967 with a three–year sabbatical to study abroad in between.
Next came a cardiac surgery fellowship under renowned heart surgeon Dr. John Kirklin in 1966 at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., that "put the finishing touches on me."
From 1967 to 1970, he was associate
professor at the University of Florida at
Gainesville, and from 1970 to 1977 was
a full professor and chief of the division
there. In 1977, he began his private
practice at St. Petersburg. From 1982 until
his retirement he was a clinical professor of
surgery at the University of South Florida
at Tampa – St. Petersburg as well as serving
as adjunct professor at Florida from 1999
–2004.