At 87, physician to spine injury patients finds hope with his art

His work is in spinal cord centers in India, Canada, Italy, the U.S.

PHILADELPHIA — Twenty-four years ago, John Ditunno took a sabbatical from his work as a spinal cord injury rehabilitation doctor at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia to learn something new in Italy.

He and his psychologist wife, Patricia, were there to develop a measure of walking function in injured patients, but Ditunno also found time to study sculpture. He’d been carving wood for years, and he wanted to see what he could do with stone.

Soon, he would use the ancient art form to meld his interests by sculpting figures in wheelchairs, which, while metaphorically anchored to the stone by injuries, also conveyed the hope he often saw in his patients.

Some of his work wound up in spinal cord centers in India, Canada, Italy and, of course, Jefferson. Most of his sculptures, including his first of Patricia’s head, are at their house in Avondale. A handful more are in their apartment in Center City.

“I’m kind of running out of space,” Ditunno joked. “I don’t sell them.”

Ditunno, who is now 87, retired from teaching in August after 50 years at Jefferson. But he hasn’t stopped sculpting, and his work is still defined by hope.

Ask him about his latest project, a woman’s hand holding a lotus flower bud, and he lights up with enthusiasm. The lotus symbolizes luck, he explains. “Your good luck is opening, and you have it in the palm of your hand.”

Jefferson neurosurgeon Ashwini Sharan met Ditunno more than 20 years ago while Sharan was in training. He called Ditunno the “consummate, complete mentor,” a loving, always-smiling force who “glowed” with enjoyment.

Working with spinal cord injury patients can be tough, Sharan said. Patients are often young victims of tragic accidents. “You fix their spine, but you have not fixed their spinal cord,” he said.

Ditunno said he didn’t find the work sad. He’d spend an hour or more talking with new patients and their families. “I was offering hope to the family at a very difficult part of their lives,” he said.

Sharan arranged for Ditunno to sculpt a figure for the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in New Delhi after a cousin was treated there. Sharan had noticed Ditunno’s sculpture of a patient and was impressed when his teacher told him that he always had patients looking up toward “the future.” The upper body was strong because it had to compensate for the injury. “This is phenomenal,” Sharan thought.

He has a Ditunno sculpture at his home that depicts a wheelchair basketball player.

HEATHER KHALIFA / PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER John Ditunno, a doctor in rehabilitation medicine who is retired from teaching at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, has been sculpting for 40 years. Some of his work reflects the challenges of patients who have spinal injuries.