Spuza & SpuzaA Tale of My Parents' Remarkable Journey

By Michelle Spuza-Milord, MD, FACR

Allergy & Rheumatology

This is the story of my parents Felicia Spuza,MD and Mihail Spuza,MD known in our community as SPUZA & SPUZA and who had a 34 year combined career from 1975, thru Mihail’s passing in 1989 and until Felicia retired at age 81. Felicia after the loss of her husband worked as hard as before, and 2 years later her 2 children after completing their medical residency and fellowship moved down to St Petersburg to be near.  

Felicia and Mihail met while studying at the State Medical School in Romania and graduated together in 1959. They had a beautiful story of love, caring and strength. Felicia was a 2nd year medical student, and the school came to her and said there is a new student who just got out of prison and you are to watch him and help him with his studies and classes until he is back on his feet.  

Mihail who after world war II was a 1st year med student, was among the hundreds who after the war when Romania fell under communist regime, was accused as an “enemy of the state”. What happened was that after WWII, the American Red Cross dropped crates with food, first aid to devastated bombed areas of the country, and many young men volunteered to open and distribute supplies. As it turned out the handling of those items was all the new regime needed to arrest them, they were imprisoned as enemies of the state, Mihail saw many who he went in with just disappear. Many lost their lives Mihail suffered for 9 years as a political prisoner, endured tortures that later he learned had severed and damaged his organs. It was Winston Churchill who negotiated prisoner of war releases, and that is how Mihail was released and immediately applied and was accepted to return as a 2nd year medical student. Mihail was assigned to Felicia to mentor him, they worked hard, and in their last year of studies, got married.   

Felicia and Mihail after graduating 1959, did 3 years of required community service in rural areas of the country. Felicia went on and did a 2 year fellowship in Hematology Pathology. From 1964 until 1972  she was Chief of the Pathology Department at Jimbolia Community Hospital in Romania. Mihail after years of persecution and being blacklisted from good hospital opportunities, escaped Romania in 1967. He arrived in Chicago, applied and was accepted at the University of Illinois to restart medical school, As a 3rd year after passing, Mihail as a medical student also worked 3 jobs and was able to save money to buy his wife and his 2 children out with legal passports, by paying the Romanian government ransom for them. 

In 1972 Felicia and the kids joined him. By July the children were in school  

And in July 1972 Felicia started a 3 year OB-GYN residency at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, where Mihail was already a 3rd year chief fellow in the Family Medicine residency. Felicia, despite her poor English on arrival to the US, passed her ECFMG exam on first attempt but failed the TOEFL English exam, and when asked how she did that, she said “it was easy since most terms have Latin in them”. 

In 1975, The Spuza’s moved to Florida, opened a small office, and by 2nd year moved into the office that was their home for 34 years, corner of 4th street and 62nd ave North.  

In 1976 the Spuza’s joined Hubert Rutland Hospital that had just opened, 

which is now the famous Northside Hospital. They were known to do early 5 or 6 AM rounds, and if you had asked Mihail at the time why so early, he gladly shared his secret that his lady patients did not yet have their wigs, teeth or makeup on, so the visits were quick and easy.😂 🤣

Felicia on the other hand had many passions. She loved surgery and her procedures. She became known as a reliable & talented back up for surgical assistants. Many weekends or evenings she would be called by her friends if their own assistant was not available. And on her own patients she never missed assisting for anything from orthopedics, abdominal pelvic, vascular, anything she loved. Her patients also knew that if they had surgery Dr Felicia was there in the OR with them and waiting for them after recovery. Names that come to mind were Dr Dematis, Dr Pruitt, Dr Tedder, and for GYN her friend Dr Manishi Mukherjee. Many good stories were exchanged over those operating tables.

Felicia in her office was the same. Any moles, growth’s, toe nails etc. if they did not look right she was most likely going to biopsy or investigate. She loved ENT and plastics, she became a member of the American Otolaryngology Academy, did hundreds of hours of Allergy to qualify for office allergy testing and treatment. From Plastic surgery she became skilled at suturing, any lesion on concerning areas such as face or neck and she prided herself in how seamless her results were .

At home on thanksgiving, once grandkids were in the picture, the turkeys always ended up the victims of a post mortem class for the kids, and any cavity on that bird was guaranteed to be sutured, knotted and again sutured shut.  

At the age of 81 Felicia retired.  

Since then she has moved in with me and her son are near as well. In the past 10 years she continues to remain busy, always with a book in hand, reading, drawing, or puzzles. Her daughter ie. me wants her to exercise more, but most importantly she is content.