Henri Ford

Ford was born in Haiti and spent his early years in Port-au-Prince.{{cite journal|url=http://backstory.latimesmagazine.com/2011/01/dr-henri-fords-haitian-relief-efforts.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130128104220/http://backstory.latimesmagazine.com/2011/01/dr-henri-fords-haitian-relief-efforts.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 January 2013 |title=Dr. Henri Ford's Haitian relief efforts |first=Annie |last=Jacobsen |journal=Los Angeles Times Magazine |date=10 January 2011 |accessdate=9 October 2011 }} His father was a preacher who spoke out against inequality in Haitian society. When Henri was 13 years old,{{cite journal |url=http://pittmed.health.pitt.edu/Jan_2003/carefullyTended.pdf |title=Carefully tended |first=Dottie |last=Horn |journal=PittMed |publisher=University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |date=Jan 2003 |volume=5 |issue=1 |accessdate=9 October 2011}} he fled with his family from the government of Papa Doc Duvalier, settling among the Haitian community in Brooklyn, New York. Ford graduated from John Jay High School despite speaking no English when he first arrived.{{cite journal |url=http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2006/Feb/html/spot-drhenriford.htm |title=Dr. Henri Ford, pediatric surgeon extraordinaire |first=Joan |last=Baum |journal=Education Update |date=Feb 2006 |page=5 |accessdate=4 November 2011}}

Ford graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1980 after completing a 144-page long senior thesis titled "In search of Refuge: Profile of the Haitian Community in Princeton."{{Cite journal|last=Ford|first=Henri Ronald|year=1980|title=In search of Refuge: Profile of the Haitian Community in Princeton|url=http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp015q47rp44b}} He received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1984. He completed his surgical internship and residency at Weill Cornell Medical College. He also completed a research fellowship in immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Department of Surgery.{{cite web |url=http://www.chla.org/site/c.ipINKTOAJsG/b.3677921/k.9427/Henri_R_Ford_MD.htm |title=Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA |publisher=Children's Hospital Los Angeles |accessdate=9 October 2011 |archive-date=6 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406080418/http://www.chla.org/site/c.ipINKTOAJsG/b.3677921/k.9427/Henri_R_Ford_MD.htm |url-status=dead }}

In 2009, Ford received a Master of Health Administration degree from the School of Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California.

From 1993 to 2005, Ford was an attending surgeon at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) and on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was surgeon-in-chief at CHP and chief of the division of pediatric surgery at the medical school. In 2005 he became vice president and chief of surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and joined the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.{{cite web |url=http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/10873.html |title=Pediatric surgeon assumes CHLA post |first=Steve |last=Rutledge |publisher=University of Southern California |date=20 December 2004 |accessdate=9 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826183140/http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/10873.html |archive-date=26 August 2011 |url-status=dead }} Ford later said he moved to East Los Angeles to serve a population in greater need than the Pittsburgh population and that he turned down a large salary increase Pitt offered to retain him.{{cite news |url=http://www.laweekly.com/2011-05-19/la-life/henri-ford-doctor-sans-frontieres/ |title=Henri Ford: doctor sans frontieres |first=Adam |last=Gropman |newspaper=LA Weekly |date=19 May 2011 |accessdate=10 October 2011}} He was appointed Vice Dean for Medical Education at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 2008.{{cite web|url=http://theweekly.usc.edu/detail.php?recordnum=15528 |title=Henri Ford named vice dean for medical education of Keck School of Medicine |first=Katie |last=Neith |publisher=University of Southern California |date=22 August 2008 |accessdate=9 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426001805/http://theweekly.usc.edu/detail.php?recordnum=15528 |archivedate=26 April 2012}} He is currently president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA), and he was awarded one of the rarest and most prestigious international milestones for a surgeon—an Honorary Fellowship to the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSEng), the organization's highest award. In 2018, he was named dean of the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.

Ford has done groundbreaking research on the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis. According to CHLA, he has written over 300 research publications. He served as President of the Association for Academic Surgery from 2002 to 2003 and is the immediate past President of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons, having served in that post 2010–11.{{cite web |url=http://www.sbas.net/about/sbas.aspx?id=3 |title=Past Presidents of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons |author=Society of Black Academic Surgeons |accessdate=9 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425054331/http://www.sbas.net/about/sbas.aspx?id=3 |archive-date=25 April 2012 |url-status=dead }} He is a fellow of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Surgeons. Since July 2010, he has been a Trustee of Princeton University.{{cite web |url=http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S27/60/15A55/index.xml |title=Eight named to Board of Trustees |first=Eric |last=Quiñones |publisher=Princeton University |date=8 June 2010 |accessdate=9 October 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.princeton.edu/vpsec/trustees/current/ |title=Board of Trustees 2011–12 |author=Princeton University |accessdate=9 October 2011}}

File:Gupta Ford Vinson surgery.jpg (third from left) Jerry Berman (far left) and a U.S. Navy doctor operating on a twelve-year-old girl aboard the USS Carl Vinson in January 2011{{cite magazine |url=http://www.life.com/news-pictures/95855402/haiti-struggles-with-death-and-destruction-after-catastrophic-earthquake |title=Haiti struggles with death and destruction after catastrophic earthquake |magazine=LIFE |date=18 January 2010 |accessdate=11 October 2011}}]]

In 1997, Ford made his first visit to Haiti following his family's escape. He later described being horrified by the abject poverty and the poor conditions at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. He returned several times in the 1990s as a visiting doctor.

After his sister called the conditions in Haiti following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, "apocalyptic", Ford contacted a friend at the U.S. State Department to offer help. By 16 January he was in Haiti with the U.S. government's emergency rescue team.{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2010/01/29/123084827/haiti-moves-past-broken-bones-to-future-needs |title=A doctor returns to his homeland to help |first=Joanne |last=Silberner |publisher=NPR |date=29 January 2010 |accessdate=10 October 2011}}{{cite news|url=http://bhcourier.com/article/More_Local_News/More_Local_News/Courier_Exclusive_CHLA_Surgeon_Reports_From_Haiti/65767 |title=CHLA surgeon reports from Haiti |first=A |last=Hood |newspaper=Beverley Hills Courier |accessdate=10 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425055954/http://bhcourier.com/article/More_Local_News/More_Local_News/Courier_Exclusive_CHLA_Surgeon_Reports_From_Haiti/65767 |archivedate=25 April 2012}} His brothers Billy Ford and Jean Ford, also doctors, soon joined him in Haiti to treat earthquake victims.{{cite journal |url=http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2010/04/28/pages/2538/index.xml |title=Healing Haiti |first=Robert |last=Strauss |journal=Princeton Alumni Weekly |date=28 April 2010 |accessdate=10 October 2011}}

Ford operated on patients in a closet at the U.S. Embassy, but when one boy's injuries proved too serious to treat there he and the boy flew by helicopter to the USS Carl Vinson. After operating on the boy, Ford remained aboard the Carl Vinson treating other pediatric patients.{{cite journal |url=http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/sur.2011.9920 |title=Answering the call to action: response to the Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2010 |first=Henri R. |last=Ford |journal=Surgical Infections |volume=12 |issue=2 |year=2011 |pages=89–98 |accessdate=10 October 2011 |doi=10.1089/sur.2011.9920|pmid=21453040 |url-access=subscription }} In one case, he removed a piece of concrete from a girl's skull with the help of Jerry Berman, a U.S. Navy doctor, and Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent.{{cite web |url=http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=50603 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805064835/http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=50603 |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 August 2012 |title=Sanjay Gupta assists Vinson medical team |first=Jason |last=Thompson |publisher=U.S. Navy |date=18 January 2010 |accessdate=10 October 2011}}{{cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/tv-neurosurgeon-sanjay-gupta-saves-girl/story-e6frg6so-1225821382651 |title=TV neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta saves girl |author=Agence France-Presse |author-link=Agence France-Presse |newspaper=The Australian |date=20 January 2011 |accessdate=10 October 2011}}

After returning to land, Ford helped the Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO) set up a field hospital at the soccer field on the campus of Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince. He treated patients at the field hospital and spread word about it in the streets of Port-au-Prince, recruiting patients and health care workers from the population. Referring to his work for the GHESKIO hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College called Ford "invaluable", saying he "served both as a skilled surgeon and as a bridge between the United States and Haitian medical teams."{{cite web |url=http://weill.cornell.edu/globalhealth/online-global-health-journal/global_health_news/thanks_to_dr_henri_ford/ |title=Thanks to Dr. Henri Ford |author=Weill Cornell Medical College |accessdate=11 October 2011}} WebMD named Ford and three others, including Gupta, "Haiti Health Heroes".{{cite web |url=http://www.webmd.com/healthheroes/haiti-honorees#ford |title=Haiti Health Heroes: Saving the children: Henri Ford, MD |author=WebMD |author-link=WebMD |accessdate=11 October 2011}}

Ford spent two weeks in Haiti during his initial visit following the earthquake.{{cite news |url=https://abc7.com/archive/7558168/ |title=Haiti six months later: hope in a hospital |first=David |last=Ono |publisher=KABC-TV |date=15 July 2010 |access-date=10 October 2011}} He returned eight times within a year of the quake to continue his medical work.

{{Reflist|colwidth=33em}}

• [https://www.med.miami.edu/faculty/henri-r-ford-md-mha Biography] at Miller School of Medicine
• [https://doctors.umiamihealth.org/provider/henri-r-ford/755049 Profile] at UHealth

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Category:American pediatric surgeons

Category:Haitian emigrants to the United States

Category:Physicians from Brooklyn

Category:Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni

Category:Harvard Medical School alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Haitian surgeons

Category:People from Port-au-Prince

Category:University of Southern California faculty

Category:USC Sol Price School of Public Policy alumni

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine