Pioneering Pediatric Kidney Doctor Dies in Michigan

ST. CLAIR SHORES, MI — Dr. Larry Fleischmann, a pioneering pediatric kidney surgeon whose patients at Children’s Hospital of Michigan were the first in the country to receive renal dialysis and kidney transplants, has died. Fleischmann, of St. Clair Shores, died Dec. 23 of small-cell lung cancer. He was 79.

Fleischmann spent nearly 50 years at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, a division of the Detroit Medical Center, where he is remembered for dedicating his life to give children with kidney disease more tomorrows. The nation’s pediatric nephrologist, he began his career with the hospital as chief resident and over the next 48 years trained generations of medical students and other pediatric nephrologists and held multiple positions, including division chief for nephrology and hospital president.

His funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, at Our Lady Star of the Sea parish in Grosse Pointe Woods. Visitation is from 2 -9 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, at A.H. Peters Funeral Home, also in Grosse Pointe Woods. Burial will be private.

The Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation said Fleischmann “relentlessly and selflessly went above and beyond to ensure the (hospital) remained committed to its mission of providing children more days to play, nights to dream and time to just be kids.”

“He genuinely lived to improve the health and well-being of all children,” the foundation said. “Dr. Fleischmann made an indelible mark on the history of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in pediatric specialty care and continued to make a lasting impact on the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation, our community, and beyond.”

He was honored with the March of Dimes Humanitarian of the Year Award, the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan Champion of Hope Award, and the 2007 Wayne State University School of Medicine Pathfinder in Medicine Award. The hospital’s dialysis center was named in Fleischmann’s honor.

A native of Saginaw, he developed a passion for medicine after contracting polio during high school, but as a participant in the controversial Salk polio vaccine trials, fully recovered from the disease.

His survivors include his wife, Pat (Margaret); three sons, Arthur, William (Kathleen) and Michael; three siblings; and two grandchildren. Read the full obituary.

Memorial donations to the Larry E. Fleischmann Nephrology Education Endowment Fund at the Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation.

Photo via Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation