First female surgeon at Jo Brant delivered about 10,000 babies
To say the late Dr. Stella Psarakis was a beloved figure at Joseph Brant Hospital might be an understatement.
After she died of cancer at the age of 60 on June 20, the visitation had to be moved to the Burlington Convention Centre from the funeral home because so many people wanted to pay their respects.
Her family estimates that Psarakis — an obstetrician who was the first female gynecologist and surgeon at Jo Brant in 1992 — delivered about 10,000 babies in Burlington, Hamilton and Oakville during her career.
She delivered a baby the night before she went into the hospital earlier this year to fight again the cancer everyone believed was in remission.
Her husband, Gus Kandilas, an athletic therapist and assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at York University, recalls that when they were first dating they had a little wager on who would buy dinner.
“We said whoever runs into the most patients would pick up dinner,” he said.
“Stella would run into so many patients.
“People would bring their children up to her and say, ‘Do you remember the doctor who delivered you?’ She ran into so many patients I felt guilty and started picking up the cheque.”
It’s no wonder then that family and friends have launched an effort to have her memorialized at Jo Brant, where she also served as president of the medical staff and sat on the board of governors.
They are seeking to raise $1 million to help in the upcoming redevelopment of the labour and delivery unit and also to have it named after her.
It’s part of the massive redevelopment and expansion of Jo Brant, which culminated in 2017 with $500 million in work and such items as new operating rooms and a new emergency department.
The group has organized various events, including a five-kilometre “Stroller Run for Stella” on the Waterfront Trail on Sept. 22 that raised about $15,000. To date, the group has raised about $240,000.
Kandilas, who grew up with Psarakis and married her in 2001,
said his wife would be overwhelmed by the project launched in her name.
“She was very humble and down to earth,” he said. “She would find this hard to believe people would be doing this for her. She was very quiet and unassuming.”
Psarakis was born in Hamilton to Athanasios and Vasilia Psarakis, who came to the city from a Greek island in the Aegean Sea called Lemnos.
Her father worked at Stelco and her mother held various jobs, including working at E.D. Smith in Winona.
Psarakis attended Stinson Street School, Adelaide Hoodless Elementary School, Scott Park Secondary School and Hamilton Collegiate Institute for Grade 13.
She was partly influenced to go into medicine after a gynecologist helped save the life of a beloved aunt who had ovarian cancer.
That relative — Aunt Penelope — died at the age of 89 last year.
Dr. Alexandra Papaioannou, a friend and colleague, called Psarakis “a great gift” to everyone she touched.
“Stella truly cared about people and her life’s ambition was to become a healer,” she said.
“There will never be another Stella and we will always miss and remember her.”
Psarakis started at McMaster University in 1976 and obtained a bachelor of science in biochemistry and psychology.
She completed her medical degree at the University of Toronto and a masters in neuroscience in 1986 and, a year later, completed a fellowship in obstetrics and gynecology at Mac.
The same year she went to work at Jo Brant, she became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a fellow of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada.
The “Stella” fundraising group have organized an evening of Greek cuisine and celebration at Sotiris Greek Restaurant in Burlington on Nov. 5.
On Nov. 23, they are staging a Fall Holiday Ball at the Le Dome Banquet Hall in Oakville.
Psarakis is survived by her husband, sisters Helen and Katina, five nieces and one nephew, other family members and many cousins, some in Greece.