Dr. Jeff Hord is so beloved that on his last day at Akron Children’s, employees lined the hallway, ringing bells and maracas and shaking pom-poms at him as he walked out the door for the final time.
Hord, who recently retired after 27 years as director of Akron Children’s Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, knew from a young age that he wanted to be a doctor.
He felt he made the right choice when his first patient as a medical student was a little boy who had been recently diagnosed with leukemia. Hord said he liked being able to follow his patient long-term, found the cancer interesting from a diagnostic standpoint and enjoyed developing the treatment plan.
“Being able to help somebody through a very difficult time will be probably what I miss the most,” he said.
Akron Children’s has changed since Hord began there in 1999, and so has medicine. The hematology-oncology division, where he worked, grew to 10 physicians and 18 advanced practice providers from three physicians and four nurse practitioners when he began. The number of oncology patients the department diagnoses and treats has more than doubled since he started.
Dr. Stephanie Savelli, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Akron Children’s, was the fifth person to join the hematology-oncology division. She called Hord not just a boss, but a mentor.
“He really helped me to shape my career into what I wanted it to look like,” Savelli said. “The thing that we appreciate the most about him is what an advocate he was for everyone in our division.”
Akron and beyond: Advances in medicine
In the 1960s, when Hord was born, almost nobody survived leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer.
Today, 98% of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia — the most common form of leukemia for kids — go into remission.
Bone marrow transplants used to be done only in very rare circumstances, Hord said, and now, they are used more widely to treat both malignant and non-malignant diseases.
There are also more advanced imaging capabilities and refined chemotherapy with fewer side effects, he said.
“Treatment has advanced a great deal during the last 30 years,” Hord said.
With those improvements, Hord said his division’s expertise has grown, as well as its ability to provide high-level specialty care.
Hord’s approach to clinical practice at Akron Children’s
Savelli said Hord will be “desperately missed” for his ability to connect with people, from coworkers to community partners to patients.
It’s the patient encounters that Hord said he values most.
“There’s nothing quite like some of those bonding relationships,” he said.
Because he would enter families’ lives at a scary time, when a child was diagnosed with a serious illness, Hord said he always did his best to be there for them and help them understand what was going on.
One of Hord’s former patients, Abby Scassa, said she always felt at ease under his care. Now 36 and a mother of four children, Hord treated Scassa for a rare blood disease, severe aplastic anemia, when she was a senior in high school in 2008. Since then, Hord and his wife have become parental figures for her.
“From the minute we met him, I knew I was going to be OK,” Scassa said. “I just felt like he had my back, and he’s very intelligent, he knew what he was talking about and he had a plan … and backup plan, so you always knew what to expect.”
Scassa described Hord as being full of compassion, humor, positivity and gentleness.
“Our community has been very blessed to have him as a provider,” she said. “He truly is one of a kind.”
His advice to future doctors: Be a ‘really good problem solver’
In retirement, Hord plans to spend more time with his family, take volunteer opportunities and travel.
But he leaves Akron Children’s with some advice to future doctors: “You really just have to develop how to be a really good problem solver and know where to go to find out information when a certain unique circumstance arises,” he said.
He also suggested developing other interests besides clinical medicine, which he believes allows a lengthy, rewarding career without as much likelihood of burnout.
“The thing that I liked about it back when I was a third-year medical student, and I still like about it today, is that kids will continue to be kids through it all,” Hord said. “They are almost always playful and energize you. … They’re just moving on to the next day, and that keeps the team satisfied and energized.”
Lauren Cohen is a community reporting intern for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. The position is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation.
