Andrew Helfgott, 56

Compassionate doctor, fun friend

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A Lawrence native who had a passion to help and unabashedly rooted for the University of Miami Hurricanes football team, Dr. Andrew W. Helfgott is being remembered by family and friends as a person who brought a great amount of laughter into their lives.
Helfgott died from complications related to pancreatic cancer at home with his family on Sept. 24. He was 56.
Born in Bennington, Vt. on Oct. 24, 1957, Helfgott grew up in Lawrence and attended The Brandeis School and Lawrence High School. He earned a bachelor’s in biology from Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and received his medical degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico.
He began his medical career as a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the Brooklyn Hospital. In 1988, he moved to Miami for maternal fetal medicine fellowship training at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Helfgott was the consummate extrovert, according to friends, and was often seen wearing ’Canes sportswear and would have an unlit cigar in his mouth.

“My favorite memory of Andy was the year prior at the annual meeting with a group of friends and him comfortably sitting with his leg hanging off the side of a large, overstuffed chair without a care in the world,” said Dr. Anthony Sciscione on the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine website.
The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine is an organization Helfgott was passionate about, said colleagues, who considered him “an outstanding clinical obstetrician and an insightful and practical administrator.” The SMFM is a group of doctors and scientists committed to improving pregnancy and perinatal outcomes. Helfgott was elected to the SMFM board of directors in 2011.
Throughout the 1990s, Helfgott developed and enhanced his interest in caring for the underserved with a focus on perinatal HIV. He founded and was co-director of the Women’s Immunology Center at the University of Texas and was a principal investigator in both the pediatric AIDS clinical trials and the women’s and infant transmission study.
“Our world is deeply saddened with Andy’s passing . . . he will be missed as a colleague . . . and more importantly, as a friend who taught us, cared for us, and made us laugh and want to be better,” Idahlynn Karre, a noted professor and friend of Helfgott’s stated on the SMFM website.
Friends said that Helfgott loved a good natured debate on many topics especially medicine, sports or politics. He learned his work ethic from his parents Saul and Claire. Close to his siblings, older brother Bennett and sister Michele, Helfgott served as a mentor to Michele who also became an Ob-Gyn doctor. He adored his wife, Gabrielle, and their children, Alexandria, Jonathan and William. Despite his illness he went on scouting trips with his sons and watched Alexandria play AAU basketball.
“They don’t make them like Andy Helfgott anymore,” said his mentor Dr. Bob Creasy. “We were truly fortunate to have known him, for far to short a time.
Along with his parents, wife and children and siblings, Bennett’s wife Laura and Michele’s husband Rodney, Helfgott is also survived by extended family members, including a niece and three nephews.