NEWS RELEASES
MARCH 12, 2009
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Stanford/Packard neonatologist Yael Kaniel dies at 31
BY ERIN DIGITALE
Photo courtesy of the Kaniel family |
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Yael Kaniel To download a high-resolution version of this image, click here. |
STANFORD, Calif. — Yael Kaniel, MD, an attending hospitalist in the special care nursery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and a clinical instructor in neonatal and developmental medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, died March 3 of cancer. She was 31.
Kaniel arrived at Packard Children’s in August 2007, just after completing her pediatric residency training at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She was a graduate of the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel, and earned her undergraduate degree in molecular, cell and developmental biology at the University of California-Los Angeles. She lived in San Francisco.
“She had the perfect personality for a pediatrician,” said William Benitz, MD, professor and chief of neonatology at Packard Children’s. “She really inspired a sense of confidence and comfort with families that their babies were in good hands.”
A significant part of Kaniel’s job at Packard was resuscitating newborns who struggled to breathe. Responding to an obstetrician’s urgent page, she would quickly arrive in the delivery room to give supplemental oxygen or help a baby who was breathing too fast. “It’s pretty panic-inducing for parents, but after just a few minutes of your time as a doctor, there’s a happy pink baby in mom’s arms,” said Ronald Cohen, MD, director of Packard’s intermediate care nursery. “Yael was great at that, and she got a real kick out of it.”
“She loved to cheer babies into this strange world they found themselves in,” agreed Aki Kaniel, Yael Kaniel’s father. He remembered his daughter as a warm, engaging person who always had a book in her hand and a close-knit group of friends nearby. She hummed happily to herself if she ate a new food she liked, and enjoyed world travel to locations such as Turkey, Switzerland, Belize and Paris—where, at the Eiffel Tower, she and her husband became engaged to be married.
Kaniel is survived by husband Josh Zaretsky, parents Batya and Aki Kaniel, sister Natalie Kaniel, stepmother Sharon Safdie, and stepsister and stepbrother Laura and Daniel Safdie.
Contributions in her memory may be sent to the Dr. Yael Kaniel-Zaretsky Memorial Fund at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford c/o Haya Barzilay, 1554 Arbor St., Los Altos, CA 94024.
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The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
