Pediatrician

Arthur M. Dannenberg, 99, a pediatrician who made house calls, died Friday at his home in Philadelphia. Dr. Dannenberg graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1913 and did his internship at the Jewish Hospital, now known as Albert Einstein Medical Center. From 1938 until his retirement in 1968, Dr. Dannenberg was chief of pediatrics at the center. He practiced medicine during the 1920s, when there were only a few pediatricians in Philadelphia, said his son, James.

Dr. Walter F. "Skipper" Hatley Jr., 44, a pediatrician who treated children in North Philadelphia for 15 years, has been indicted by a federal grand jury here for allegedly taking photographs depicting teen-age boys in sexual poses. Hatley, who had an office on Randolph Street near Girard Avenue, allegedly took the photographs himself while on a recent trip to Puerto Rico, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Scheff. He was arrested last month after having the films developed through a local pharmacy.

A memorial service was to be held this afternoon for Paul A. Branca, M.D., a pediatrician and neonatologist, who died Wednesday. He was 49 and lived in Wynnewood. Branca had been director of neonatology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital since 1974. He also served on the staff as clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology. During his tenure Branca was credited with developing a modern intensive care unit. He and his staff innovated programs devoted to the care of premature babies with bronchopulmonary dysplasia at the Children's Rehabilitation Hospital.

David Baker, 73, a pediatrician and former director of pediatric education at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, died of lung cancer Thursday at his home in Wallingford. Dr. Baker operated a private practice in Broomall for 40 years until 1995. Since 1975, he also taught pediatrics at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, which became Allegheny University of the Health Sciences. In 1995 and 1997, he received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Corinne Vahlstrom Newton, 81, of Newtown Square, a Philadelphia pediatrician, died of pneumonia Sunday, July 18, at Lankenau Hospital. Dr. Newton's career extended from 1956 until she retired in 1991. She spent much of it working with children enrolled in the Head Start program, which began in 1965, said a son, John E. Newton Jr. "Traveling alone in her trusty VW Beetle, she visited clinics in every part of the city, providing medical care to hundreds of kids who lived mostly in impoverished and neglected circumstances.

Mary Susan Bee Stine, 65, a pediatrician who made life better for children with developmental and behavioral problems, died of uterine cancer Thursday at home in Radnor. For more than 30 years, Dr. Stine worked with some of the most troubled children at the Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. The children often suffered social problems spurred by chronic conditions such as cerebral palsy and motor-skill and emotional problems. "My mother's can-do attitude and dauntless spirit powered her resistance to cancer, and her empathy gave patients reassurance," daughter Cynthia Stine said.

William G. Chodoff, 64, of West Mount Airy, a pediatrician, died of Merkel cell carcinoma at his home on Nov. 26. Since 1997, Dr. Chodoff was medical director of Keystone Mercy Health Plan in Philadelphia, a managed-care plan serving more than 273,000 medical assistance recipients in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Previously, he was a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's primary-care center in Cobbs Creek; a pediatrician in West Philadelphia for Philadelphia Health Associates; and in the 1970s and 1980s, a pediatrician and medical director of the Children and Youth Program of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in South Philadelphia.

Phyllis Colacicco Marciano, 71, of Plymouth Meeting, a pediatrician and associate professor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, died of cancer April 15 at home. Dr. Marciano had cared for children in her practice and at the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital since 1968. She also worked in the hospital clinic and had taught medical students since 1972. When treating young patients, she combined her medical expertise with the power of prayer. "My mother was very religious," her daughter Stephanie Carfagno said.

Harriet Josephine Davis, 92, a retired Doylestown pediatrician, died of cancer Tuesday at Pennswood Village in Newtown, Bucks County. In 1948, Dr. Davis became the first board-certified pediatrician to establish a practice in Bucks County. Ten years earlier she had opened a general practice in Doylestown, charging $1 for office visits and $2 for house calls. Her general practice was interrupted by World War II. In 1942, she and two women physicians volunteered to serve in the Navy medical corps.

One in an occasional series on attempts to solve a medical mystery. 'I can't move my head" was the first thing our 2-year-old daughter, Sarah, said to me on a cold wintry morning several years ago, as she awakened from a deep sleep. Instinctively, I felt her forehead. Her skin was on fire. I was a second-year pediatric resident at the time. Our training prepared us to consider the worst first, and then to work backward to the probable. "Meningitis, encephalitis, septic shock!

Joseph F. Hennessey, 75, of Huntingdon Valley, a pediatrician in Philadelphia for almost four decades, died Monday, April 22, of heart failure at the Regional Hospital of Scranton. Dr. Hennessey was known for his care and compassion for children, his patients, and their families, his children said. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he was the son of J. Edward and Helen Golan Hennessey. She died when Dr. Hennessey was a boy; his father then married Catherine Gillern Hennessey. Dr. Hennessey graduated in 1955 from Scranton Preparatory School and four years later from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Question: I am in a relationship with a wonderful, intelligent man. We've been together three years and I adore him. He wants me to join him in a new home with his two kids, ages 7 and 9. He and his ex-wife coparent peacefully. Here's my issue: I have never wanted kids and I have no experience with them, and my experience with his kids has me wanting to run in the other direction. These kids behave abominably. They are allowed to protest every decision the parents make (including choice of dinner and what cars the parents drive)

CHICAGO - The nation's most influential pediatricians' group has endorsed gay marriage, saying a stable relationship between parents regardless of sexual orientation contributes to a child's health and well-being. The American Academy of Pediatrics' new policy, published online Thursday, cites research showing that the parents' sexual orientation has no effect on a child's development. Children fare just as well in gay or straight families when they are nurturing and financially and emotionally stable, the academy says.

Jason Smith, the 36-year-old exterminator charged in the murder of pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti, pleaded guilty last year to exposing himself to someone on I-95 in a fit of road rage, court records show. Smith, arrested last week in the strangulation of Ketunuti, whose body was set on fire in the basement of her home, received the citation in Bensalem for disorderly conduct on March 16. The circumstances were not clear, but Smith, of Levittown, paid $289 in fines, according to court papers.

She had an exterminator coming. Mice in the basement. Melissa Ketunuti hurried home through the morning cold, walking quickly the short distance from a parking garage to her Graduate Hospital-area rowhouse. A busy morning already. A work meeting at the hospital, errands. She clutched a CVS bag. Pooch, her black pit-bull/Lab mix of six years, would have greeted her at the door. Moments later, a tall, thin man wearing a NorthFace jacket and work gloves, carrying a work bag, walked onto the street, heading toward Ketunuti's home, out of camera view.

A BUCKS COUNTY man was taken into custody Wednesday night in connection with the gruesome killing this week of pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti in her Center City home, a police source said. The 37-year-old man, who had not been charged by midnight, was spotted on surveillance video following her to her house, the Inquirer reported, citing unnamed police sources. A silver Ford work truck the man owned was also seen circling the area around Ketunuti's house, and it was traced to a home in Levittown and towed, 6ABC reported.

A few spare hours after a morning meeting. Some errands. A quick trip to the drugstore. But what began as a routine Monday in the active life of a young Center City doctor quickly turned unimaginably violent. Through electronic store receipts and security footage, members of a homicide task force have established a timeline of the final hours of Melissa Ketunuti, the 35-year-old Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania pediatrician found bound and choked, her body set afire, in the basement of her southwest Center City home.

Police descended on the quiet, narrow 1700 block of Naudain Street in Center City shortly after noon Monday, searching for evidence in the grisly slaying of a pediatrician who was found in her basement, her ankles and wrists bound behind her back, her body on fire. Authorities did not release the woman's name Monday night, but police sources identified her as the homeowner, Melissa Ketunuti, who worked at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and was 35. Police were waiting for an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but Chief Inspector Scott Small said that there were no obvious signs of gunshot or stab wounds.