Inspirational autobiography by Brooklyn Heights nephrologist, from Holocaust to miracles in medicine
“How Dr. Avram managed to forge beauty and purpose out of a life begun in cruelty and terror is a testament to his courage, temperament, and to his generous and determined mind, indeed to his soul. A Jewish boy is trapped in Nazi-held Bucharest, where the anti-Semitic savagery of the Romanians is at least equal to that of the Germans. Miraculously he makes it to America, where he becomes a physician and scientist whose imagination and zeal have saved and will continue to save millions of more lives than he saw taken as a boy. Here is a story of redemption at its noblest level, inspired and inspiring.”
– Roger Rosenblatt, bestselling author of 18 books
One of the most generous patrons of arts and medicine in Brooklyn and Southampton is a shy, unassuming resident of Remsen Street named Dr. Morrell (Mike) Avram, who fell in love with Brooklyn Heights and the noble mission of Long Island College Hospital in its mid-20th century growth. (That mission was also embraced by the late Don Othmer, noted Heights inventor, chemical engineer and philanthropist who donated more than $ 100 million to LICH in its heyday.) Dr. Avram’s autobiography also captures the emergence of the Brooklyn Kidney Center, which he created. The center had the distinction of having kept alive the world’s longest-lived dialysis patient.
Morrell Avram, born in Bucharest, could have easily become one of the 200,000 Romanian Jews killed by the German Nazis or their Romanian allies. I AM THE STORM (Skyhorse Publishing) is the riveting true story of how he survived — and later triumphed as a pioneering doctor — through a combination of grit and persistence.