May 3, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Wyndmoor resident makes medical history
First U.S.-trained black female pediatric surgeon
by MARY PRICE LEE

Dr. Ala Stanford Frey holds an eight-month-old patient, Nina Ferrell. (Photo by Amanda M. Haines)

For Dr. Ala Stanford Frey, it has been a long and most rewarding climb to a pinnacle of medicine, pediatric surgery. Dr. Frey discovered her passion for medicine early in life growing up in North Philadelphia and Mount Airy.

“I’ve wanted to be a surgeon ever since sixth grade at the Fitler School, Seymour and Knox Streets,” she says. “My parents always said, ‘You can do it.’” Her eighth grade yearbook finds her looking to a future full of challenges. In fact, her principal was sure of her calling and happily attended her graduation from Penn State Medical School! Her mother inspires Ala’s efforts today, even though her proud mom now lives in Detroit. And the Wyndmoor resident has her father and “tons of cousins” in Philadelphia who are proud of her accomplishments.

Ala is the first African-American female pediatric surgeon to be trained entirely in the United States. (A predecessor trained at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.) Dr. Frey has spent 18 years — half her life — in training since high school: graduating from Penn State University in three and a half years in 1992; Penn State Medical School in 1997; followed by internship at the State University of New York at Brooklyn, and pediatric surgery research and general surgery training at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh., through 2004.

Before joining Temple Children’s Hospital last September, Dr. Frey was a pediatric surgery Fellow at the Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center, one of 100 candidates for 20 U. S. pediatric surgery Fellowships nationwide. This led to her present position at Temple and at Abington Memorial Hospital.

Children are her life. “They are resilient, optimistic and have good attitudes,” she insisted. “They want to feel better. When you’re around them, you totally forget about your own bad moods.” Somehow, we can’t envision Dr. Frey as ever having a bad mood. She is a sunny, upbeat lady with a smile that must make her sick patients and their worried parents feel better.

Why did she choose pediatric surgery? Although she can perform any surgery, she feels more emotionally involved with children. “I use the kids’ first names, which sometimes confuses other staffers — and I refer to a parent as ‘Maria’s mom’ instead of, say, Mrs. Torres.” As further reassurance, she can be reached by any worried parent day or night by cell phone.

Dr. Frey’s specialties are general and thoracic surgery, correcting anorectal and colorectal conditions, and surgery for Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), a rare genetic disease that can cause severe skin blistering. Dr. Frey’s expertise is pediatric cases in which EB has moved inside the body to places such as the esophagus. In such cases, EB may require corrective surgery, with segments of colon used to replace the damaged esophagus.

Are children easier to operate on than adults? Adults may have conditions such as diabetes or heart disease than can complicate any operation. But Dr. Frey says that children, too, may have added problems. “For instance, an insignificant blood loss in a teen-ager or adult may be critical in an infant. Even a relatively simple operation such as correcting a hernia requires extreme care. The bottom line is, everything you do for a child must last a lifetime.” Dr. Frey also teaches surgical residents at Temple Children’s Hospital. This includes observing her surgeries and doing patient rounds with her.

She is a role model among young people. This includes some teen-age patients and former patients and at-risk youngsters in the community. She has established a program called CATCH, Creating Access through Temple Children’s Hospital. The team that works to help youngsters includes Dr. Frey, a trauma nurse, and a social worker. “We’re trying to catch kids who have been victims of violence, in danger of possibly dying early, or likely to be incarcerated.” She adds that “They are not failures, although their lives have been anything but easy.” She gives them her card and tells them to call her any time they want to. For an intensely busy physician, this is a labor of love.

We ask, “Did you or do you have any problems with acceptance, either as a woman or an African-American?”

“I have had some resistance, of course, on both counts,” she answers. “I wondered whether I was in medical school more as part of a quota than for my own abilities, and I’ve had some people not accept me. But when I was in Pittsburgh, I had a mentor named Dr. Henri Ford. He told me to turn negatives to advantage. At that point, I worried too much about what other people thought. When I stopped competing with others and focused on competing with myself, everything changed.

“When I’m here at Temple Children’s, my patients’ families trust me because this hospital serves a largely minority area, and I seem familiar. Some parents, when they meet me, will say, ‘Are you the doctor?’ The mix is just the opposite when I’m at Abington, but at either hospital, the families and I look past all of that. It took 18 years after high school for me to get here. Most people respect that.”

Since April, 2004, Dr. Ala Frey has been married to Dr. Matthew Frey, a pediatric dentist. “We do talk shop,” she says. “If I have a child who’s not doing well, I have someone to talk to about it.”

Dr. Frey has received many awards, including the Philadelphia Tribune Magazine’s selection as one of “10 People Under 40 to Watch in 2007” and by Philadelphia Business Journal as one of its “40 Outstanding People Under 40” in the Delaware Valley. She appreciates these awards but says her true satisfaction is in helping children get well.

She and her husband enjoy Chestnut Hill — when they have free time, that is. Recently, she got a fortune cookie from her favorite Chestnut Hill Chinese restaurant, King’s Garden. It’s pasted to her computer monitor. It reads, “You love a challenge.”

We would say that is one smart cookie!

The authors wish to thank Amanda M. Haines, Public Relations Department, Temple University Health System, for her assistance with our interview, and for the quality of her photography.