Beloved Queens healthcare provider dies from
COVID-19 while battling stage 4 colon cancer
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Dr. Neil Blatt, D.P.M, a beloved
healthcare provider in Queens
whose life’s work was characterized
by a love and respect for humanity,
died of the coronavirus in April, despite
a valiant effort fighting stage 4
colon cancer.
Whether in his private podiatry
practices in Bayside and Woodside
for nearly five decades, or during his
25 years as a podiatrist with Adults
and Children with Learning Disabilities
(ACLD) and most recently
with Charles Evans Center (CEC),
Blatt had touched the lives of many
people during his career.
“The outpouring of love in patient
letters to our family has been
overwhelming,” said Stefani Cohen,
Blatts daughter. “While we are
saddened to have lost our beloved
father, it is such an incredible feeling
to know how much he meant to
people and the impact he made on
their lives.”
Blatt’s work included a lifetime
of dedication to people of special
needs, for whom he often went
to great lengths as part of their
treatment.
This included routinely making
house calls for people with developmental
disabilities in order to check
up on them to ensure that they were
in good health and in good care. His
visits brought obvious joy to his patients,
due in no small part to Blatt’s
well known and often expressed
sense of humor, a major part of his
persona and outlook.
It was a gift he successfully deployed
to communicate with his
patients as well as for making them
feel relaxed and comfortable, whether
the jokes were funny or just plain
silly, according to Cohen.
“He was the ultimate caregiver,”
Cohen said. “Dad was always looking
to help others. It could have been
a stranger on the street who needed
someone to hold their groceries, or a
person needing directions. You name
it, he wanted to help, and he did.”
A resident of North Hills, NY,
Blatt had an innate concern for his
fellow men and women, which was
not limited to his professional practice
alone. He was just as likely to
help out family members and neighbors.
“He helped numerous people with
simple acts of kindness whether he
knew them or not, like assisting
someone stuck on the side of the road
or digging cars out of snow drifts,”
said Jessica Smith, Blatt’s daughter.
Dr. Neil Blatt, D.P. M., a healthcare provider in Bayside and Woodside, who died of the COVID-19 coronavirus despite a valiant
effort fighting stage 4 colon cancer and anticipating a return to his professional duties at Charles Evans Center (CEC).
“At home growing up, our kitchen
table was Dad’s makeshift doctor’s
chair for when any kid in the
neighborhood got hurt.”
Blatt’s dedication to his family
was paramount and always
evident. He never missed events
involving his two daughters or
his grandchildren, Alexandra and
Ryan, of whom he said, “were his
best medicine.”
While quarantined with COVID-
19, Blatt quipped that he was okay
TIMESLEDGER | 2 QNS.COM | SEPT. 11-17, 2020
with being home because “he got to
look at his wife Maxine every day,”
whom he met as a teenager, fell in
love with, and was married to for 52
years.
Blatt graduated from Brooklyn
College in 1966 and New York College
of Podiatric Medicine in 1970.
He established his private practice
in 1971 and in 1993 he became the
Podiatrist at ACLD. Blatt was a Diplomate
with The American Board of
Podiatric Orthopedics & Primary
Podiatric Medicine, a Fellow of the
American College of Foot and Ankle
Orthopedics and Medicine, as well
as a member of the American Podiatric
Medical Association, New York
Podiatric Medical Society, and the
Queen’s County Podiatric Medical
Association.
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed
by e-mail at cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260–
4526.
Courtesy of The Blatt Family
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