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January 21, 2003
The Wenz family would like you to know what arrangements
have been made for the viewing and funeral service for James and Lidia
Wenz, as well as for the memorial fund established in their name. Additional
tributes to them also are below:
BARRANCO & SONS, P.A.
SEVERNA PARK FUNERAL HOME
495 Governor Ritchie Highway
Severna Park, Maryland 21146
Phone: 410-647-2400
Thursday, Jan. 22, 3 - 5 p.m.
and 7 to 9 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 23, 3 - 5 p.m.
and 7 to 9 p.m.
*NOTE* This is a new location
Saturday at 11 a.m.
Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church
611 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd.
Severna Park, MD 21146
Phone: 410-647-2550
There will be a procession immediately following the funeral service
to Meadowridge Memorial Park, 7250 Washington Blvd, Elkridge, MD 21227
(410-796-1144).
Please refer to www.mapquest.com
for specific directions.
Donations may be made to the James and Lidia Wenz Memorial Fund:
Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine
100 N. Charles Street - Suite 418
Baltimore, MD 21201
Finally, a memory book is being compiled for the Wenz children.
If you would like to share written memories or a photo, please send
to:
"Memory Book/Chairman's Office"
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
601 N. Caroline Street - Suite 5215
Baltimore, MD 21287-0881
Members of the book club that Lidia helped to run will compile the
book and give it to the children.
James Wenz was the personification of the spirit of Johns Hopkins Medicine
with his commitment to clinical work, teaching and research. In all
of these endeavors he was continually pushing the frontier with innovation.
He did so with intelligence, wit, and, most important, compassion. James
was truly a part of the Hopkins family, as was Lidia, who shared these
qualities with him and who, with their children, formed a family that
welcomed so many of us into their home. They will be missed by us here
and all those who have, and would have, benefitted from their work.
Most of all, they will be missed by their children, who we hope can,
in time, learn to know and admire them a we did.
L. Reuven Pasternak, MD MPH MBA
Vice Dean for the Bayview Campus
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January 20, 2003
With profound sorrow, we inform you that the husband and
wife killed in the accident on I-83 early Tuesday morning were Drs.
James and Lidia Wenz.
Their death is a loss not just to their children, but to the entire
Johns Hopkins Medicine family and to the many patients who benefited
from their skills. As more information becomes available about memorial
services, we will keep you informed. In the meantime, we remind you
of the enormous skills and promise lost to the world by their deaths:
A brilliant and innovative orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Wenz, 40, was
chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Bayview
Medical Center, an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at The
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and an attending surgeon
at both Bayview and The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
A native of Somerville, New Jersey, James Wenz received his B.S. in
1987 in biomedical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
where he did extensive research on prosthetic devices and mechanical
properties of articular cartilage, knowledge which he brought into practical
application in orthopedics.
 After
receiving his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1991, he completed his orthopaedic
residency at Hopkins Hospital in 1996, where he received specialized
training in joint reconstruction surgery, and then did a one-year fellowship
with Dr. David Hungerford before joining the faculty in 1997. He concentrated
on total hip and total knee replacement surgery, the treatment of osteonecrosis,
revision surgery for failed joint replacements and the use of cartilage
transplantation. Some of these advanced techniques incorporated the
use of minimally invasive approaches. He performed hundreds of hip replacements
through a four-inch incision, rather than the standard 10-12 inches.
A fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Dr. Wenz's
major areas of interest also included the care of fractures in geriatric
patients. He was conducting research in alternative treatments of arthritis,
joint replacement surgery, cartilage transplant techniques and osteonecrosis,
as well as in reconstruction after failed joint replacement surgery.
Outside of medicine, he once described his interests as "bicycling,
ballroom dancing, computer imaging, snowmobiling, water-skiing and tennis."
"Dr. James Wenz was the most brilliant innovator and technical
surgeon ever to graduate from the Johns Hopkins Orthopaedic Surgery
Residency Program," according to Frank Frassica, M.D., chairman
of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. "He was an advocate for
resident education and patient safety. He will be tremendously missed
not only by the Hopkins community but also on a regional and national
level. He was a true gentleman and was universally loved by his patients,
colleagues and friends."
 Child
psychiatrist Dr. Lidia Wenz, 44, received three degrees from the State
University of New York in Buffalo (SUNY-Buffalo): a B.S. in nursing
in 1983, a B.A. in psychology in 1984, and an M.D. in 1990. She trained
in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, serving as a resident from July 1990
until 1993 and then completing a fellowship in child psychiatry. An
instructor in psychiatry at the time of her death, she was on the Johns
Hopkins full-time faculty until 2001, when she left to spend more time
with her children, Adrianna, now 8, and James Jr., now 7. Both children
also were injured in the accident, but are expected to recover from
their injuries.
According to Department of Psychiatry Director Dr. J. Raymond DePaulo,
Jr., "Lidia was as good as they come. She was one of the best adult
residents in her years of training and then became a wonderful child
psychiatrist. We all were planning her return to the full-time faculty
when her children were older. She as well as her husband will be sorely
missed."
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