14 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Beloved Queens healthcare provider dies from
COVID-19 while battling stage 4 colon cancer
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@qns.com
@QNS
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 eff ort fi ghting stage
4 colon cancer.
Whether in his private podiatry practices
in Bayside and Woodside for nearly
fi ve 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.
“Th e outpouring of love in patient letters
to our family has been overwhelming,”
said Stefani Cohen, Blatt’s 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 oft en went to great lengths as
part of their treatment.
Th is 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 oft en 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 drift s,” said Jessica Smith, Blatt’s
daughter. “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, whom he said “were his best medicine.”
While quarantined with COVID-19,
Blatt quipped that he was okay 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 Th e 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.
obituaries
Courtesy of The Blatt Family
Dr. Neil Blatt, D.P. M., a healthcare provider in Bayside and Woodside, NY, 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).
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