On call at Yale-New Haven

For many years, my husband, Samuel Kravitt, was on call at Yale-New Haven Hospital. No, he was not a physician. He was a filmmaker. At almost any hour of the day or night, he might get a call: “I’ve got an interesting case. Can you meet me in the ER?”

Sam filmed surgical procedures with specialists in their respective fields: Doctors William Glenn, cardiology; Wayne Southwick, orthopedics; Harry Newman, urology; John Kirchner, otolaryngology; Robert Chase, plastic and reconstructive surgery, among others.

When Dr. Chase established the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Yale, Sam filmed many of his innovative procedures. “The Functional Anatomy of the Hand” became one of the most popular teaching tools ever made, with 15 prints constantly in demand in medical schools. “Injuries of the Hands and Face” received the Davis and Geck Award for participation in the cine Clinic Program of the American College of Surgeons.

“Surgical photography is impersonal, detached and clinical, with no emotional involvement,” Sam said. “You never see the whole person. It’s just a member—an arm or a leg or part of a body, as in heart surgery.” Only once was he affected by a surgical procedure. “There was a young man with five fingers severed from his hand in a lawnmower accident. The digits were saved and Dr. Chase painstakingly put it all together. It took hours. I never learned the results of his operation, but I really related to it and my own hand. Perhaps one is more emotionally affected by something external, like a hand, rather than one’s innards.”

Sam had an office in New York and he commuted by train daily when he wasn’t on location somewhere else shooting news, sports, fashion, or a documentary. When he worked in the OR, he always donned the sterile suit worn by the medical personnel. One day, as he was walking down the hospital corridor, he met one of his fellow commuters. “I didn’t know you were a doctor,” the man said. “Oh, I just do this in my spare time,” Sam replied.

Marcia Kravitt
New Haven, Conn.