by Joseph RADDER
We daresay it’s highly unlikely that any other Jewish person, layman or professional,
American or otherwise, has had as many audiences with Pope John Paul II as has Dr. Jeffrey
Meilman.
Indeed, the Pope calls him Doctor Buffalo and loves to tell about his visits to Buffalo as
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla and how he swam in the river here.
Meilman’s relationship with the Pope began in 1991. The tragedy suffered by a Polish
girl named Margaret Orlowski brought them together. Margaret had been in a fiery
automobile accident that left her face destroyed. She desperately needed surgical help she
could not afford or get in her homeland. Margaret Orlowski’s fate came to the
attention of the Polish-American community in Buffalo. They raised the funds to bring her
to Buffalo and the Erie County Medical Center. The hospital and Dr. Jeffrey Meilman
donated their services to help restore her beauty. The results were nothing short of
miraculous.
Word of this humanitarian deed reached Poland, the Bishop of Gdansk and subsequently
President Lech Walesa. Through the Bishop’s ties to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II
heard about Margaret Orlowski and what the Buffalo surgical team had accomplished for her.
Margaret and Dr. Meilman were invited to Rome, where she was blessed by the Pope in 1992.
Today, Margaret Orlowski has a new face, a new husband and is enjoying a fruitful life.
This led to the beginning of the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation, an organization supported
by some 30 people...volunteers, physicians, surgeons and financial backers.
Each year, under the auspices of Hope for Tomorrow, Dr. Meilman makes two trips abroad to
Third World countries where he and other surgeons perform 10 to 15 much-needed
reconstructive surgery procedures. Meilman and other Hope for Tomorrow members have
brought 8 of those patients to Rome to be blessed by the Pope. He has a standing
invitation to come to the Vatican any time he has a patient who would benefit from a papal
blessing. We asked Dr. Meilman how he felt when he first met Pope John Paul II.
“I’m not Catholic,” he said, “but I found it very exciting. It humbles
one to be in the presence of a person who is so dedicated to good purposes.”
Jeffrey Meilman is a native of Buffalo. His mother was a teacher and his father a
businessman here. His sister is a practicing attorney. Dr. Meilman is married to Mary Lee,
a native of Hawaii. Together they run a business in Hawaii.
He grew up here and attended the Park School from 7th grade through high school. His best
childhood memories include a trip to Philmont Scout Camp in Cimarron New Mexico. During
his high school years he bicycled through Europe twice and enjoyed summer visits to
Canadian beaches.
Jeffrey Meilman attended St. Lawrence University and received his medical degree from the
University of Rochester. He served in Korea and Vietnam as a United States Air Force
surgeon. It was there that his experiences sensitized him to the plight of the injured and
deformed. And it was there that he saw so many people in need of surgical restoration.
Then and there he decided to specialize in plastic surgery.
Dr. Meilman works with children here in Buffalo/Niagara as well as all over the world. He
wanted to be sure we credited the Catholic Health System in general and Kenmore Mercy
Hospital in particular for their tremendous support. “And it’s not just the
hospitals,” he said. “The whole community is involved and the various ethnic
communities have been most helpful.”
He has had a very successful plastic surgery practice in Amherst for over 20 years, but
it’s clear his first love is the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation. “The thing that
excites me about Hope for Tomorrow,” he said, “is that it has given purpose to
the lives of so many of the people who are involved. They continually give of themselves
to help those less fortunate who have had some kind of a disfiguring experience.”
This year, Hope for Tomorrow staged a fund-raising event at Salvatore’s Italian
Gardens and over 500 people attended.
Now internationally-known for his innovative and charitable surgeries, Jeffrey Meilman has
been invited to speak all over the world and has received numerous awards and citations.
A soft-spoken modest man, Dr. Jeffrey Meilman is reluctant to speak about his many
achievements. Yet a half hour in his presence tells the visitor that he is truly a
remarkable man.
Joseph Radder is a freelance writer.