Remembering Dr. Cibul

There are people in your lives that leave a memory that you just cannot forget. These are memories you cherish because you have met angels that made a difference.

One of our angels was Dr. Cibul. He was our kids' pediatrician in Chicago.

A year after we arrived in Chicago, Tiffany was born. Art's cousin was a social worker at Children's Memorial Hospital and recommended Dr. Herbert Cibul. We loved him as soon as we met him. Dr. Cibul reminded me a little of Gene Wilder. He always met us with a smile, always made time for any questions and always pronounced Tiffany and Jonathan as the most beautiful children in the world.

He told us we were doing a great job and gave us lots of wonderful advice. When I asked him what I should do about Jon always stuffing a cloth diaper in his mouth for comfort Dr. Cibul said, "Well... it's a choice actually. You can pay $2,000 for braces or $30,000 later for psychological services." He was joking, but he was telling us not to sweat the small stuff.

However, when he detected a heart murmur in Tiffany, he sent us to one of the top cardiologists in Chicago. We learned when we got to his office that he was the head of the department. He did a whole bunch of tests on Tif and told us she had a functional heart murmur. He also said we could bring her back anytime. He would not charge us anything because he had such high regard for Dr. Cibul.

Another time Dr. Cibul insisted we bring Jon to Children's Memorial to be checked out by the head of another department because he had an enlarged spleen. She looked Jon over carefully, ran some tests and told us he probably had an infection but it wasn't anything to worry about. She laughed and said, "Herbert Cibul loves and worries about his kids even more than the parents." Again, she would not charge us anything for her services.


Things like this happened several more times. When Jon broke his arm, a keloid formed at his elbow which caused his arm to retract so he couldn't fully extend his arm. We took him to a plastic surgeon in a fancy office in Northbrook who told us there was no hope. He said he could remove the keloid, but it would come back again. He could use radiation, but it would only shorten Jon's life. So we decided to let it go.

During our next yearly visit, Dr. Cibul frowned and said, "Why haven't you done anything about that?" We told him what the other doctor said. Dr. Cibul insisted we take him to another doctor at Children's Memorial. We learned later that this doctor was world famous. He wasn't the nicest or friendliest doctor in the world (another Dr. House type) but he removed the keloid and had us wrap it with koban bandages. Today, Jon has full mobility of his arm and had a very (I don't want to brag) successful high school sports career.

Soon Dr. Cibul decided to close his pediatric practice and focus on child psychology instead. We really missed him.

I checked on line several years ago to learn that he had passed away much too soon. But you know what? I still think he's around watching over all children who need a guardian angel.