Julia Hennein, also 52, was being treated for her wound at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
She had filed for divorce on June 1, alleging in court documents that her husband was “mentally and physically abusive” to her and to their two youngest daughters, who are 16 and 14.
That divorce filing came only three days after Dr. Hennein was arrested for misdemeanor battery for allegedly striking his 16-year-old daughter twice in the head with his hand.
Hennein was released after posting $100 bail, and that charge was still pending.
After filing for divorce, Julia Hennein was given exclusive rights to the family’s Elmhurst home and physical custody of the couple’s two youngest children, but Dr. Hennein was allowed supervised visits with those children at least once a week.
He also was allowed to spend Father’s Day with them.
The couple also has two older children, a 22-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son, records indicate.
Julia Hennein initially had sought an order of protection against her husband when she filed for divorce, which allowed him to contact her only to discuss their children. But court records appear to indicate that order was vacated on June 17.
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“They’ve had disturbances there before,” said Jacie Verdak, a 15-year-old who lives across the street. A few weeks ago, she saw the police outside the house, and a daughter, whom she knew from school, was outside crying.
Two nights ago, Verdak said her sister saw Hennein walking around his garage and driveway, talking to himself.
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“She was afraid of her father,” Connell said. “He was coming home, and she wanted us to stay because she was afraid of what might happen.” Later she changed her mind and asked them to leave.
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The Henneins lived in a newly built home, the largest on the block. They had not yet fully unpacked, but art objects reflecting their Egyptian heritage, including a gold plate painted with images of pharaohs, were displayed prominently.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2459992,doctor-shoots-wife-kills-himself-070210.article
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There was a heart surgeon at the Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas who saved thousands of babies a year. He was featured in a television special years ago. After he was diagnosed with cancer (and recovered) he was found dead in his office at home where he took an overdose.
Sometimes we don’t understand the pressure and we certainly don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. Just because people are doctors obviously doesn’t make any other problems go away.
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Jonathan Drummond-Webb (August 29, 1959 – December 26, 2004) was a South African pediatric heart surgeon.
He gained national attention by way of a TV series produced by ABC NEWS called “ICU: Arkansas Children’s Hospital” , which showcased complicated operations during the summer of 2002. Late in 2004, he led a team that successfully kept a child alive with a newly developed heart pump until a heart transplant could be performed. The child, Travis Marcus, was able to go home in time for Christmas with a gift and a hug from Dr. Drummond-Webb.
Drummond-Webb was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1982. He completed an internship and two residencies there. He and his wife Lorraine De Blanche (also a doctor) came to the U.S. in 1995 so he could do a surgical fellowship at the University of Utah. In 1997, he went on to another fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. There, he became the surgical director of pediatric cardiac and lung transplantation. In 2001, he was named chief of pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. He held that post at the time of his death.
Hospital spokesman Tom Bonner said the surgeon was a competitive marathoner and triathlete who loved scuba diving. Drummond-Webb also was a champion of Arkansas, appearing in commercials promoting the state to businesses.
Drummond-Webb committed suicide by taking an overdose of Oxycodone, a pain medication. His wife found his body with a note. According to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, friends believed he suffered from a sudden bout of depression. His suicide note indicated professional frustration may have been a factor in his death.
Friends said the doctor, who once described himself as “a bit of an extreme personality,” suffered a sudden bout of depression. He had been diagnosed with a rare tissue cancer on his hip in 2001 but was successfully treated with surgery.
Dr. Drummond-Webb’s accomplishments over 18 months in 2001 and early 2002 — 830 surgeries with a 2 percent mortality rate — became the subject of a four-part ABC News documentary, “ICU: Arkansas Children’s Hospital.”
A Los Angeles Times reviewer, praising the 2002 series, called Dr. Drummond-Webb a “medical miracle worker, triathlete, and surgeon extraordinaire.”
“Some would say they saved 98 out of 100,” Bates told the Associated Press. “He looked at it and said ‘I lost two out of 100.’ “
“This is a high-risk business. We see children walking out, we also see children who do not make it,” Dr. Drummond-Webb said.
“I work on very hard facts and very hard statistics,” he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette two years ago. “Even though we are driven by compassion, I think it’s foolhardy to just proceed with compassion and heart alone. . . . The bottom line is that we’re dealing with hard scientific evidence, and what I do demands ultimate perfection.”
A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Drummond-Webb was 8 years old on Dec. 3, 1967, when Dr. Christiaan Barnard made history by performing the world’s first successful heart transplant in Cape Town.
“He was a saint in my mind,” Dr. Drummond-Webb told the Democrat-Gazette. “I knew then that that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to operate on hearts.”
The son of two well-to-do liberal intellectuals, whose surnames form his hyphenated name, Dr. Drummond-Webb attended boarding school and earned a medical degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. After two years service in the South African army, he completed a residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Johannesburg Hospital.
Encouraged by his wife, Dr. Lorraine E. de Blanche, Dr. Drummond-Webb emigrated to escape South African government restrictions on medical practice. In 1993, he became a fellow in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the University of Utah LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Two years later, he moved to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, one of the most prominent centers in the United States for heart surgery.
He was lured to the Little Rock hospital by what he saw as a state of the art operating room, an enthusiastic surgical staff, and unlimited potential. He was determined to build the hospital into a nationally dominant pediatric cardiac center.
Dr. Drummond-Webb, who said he competed in triathlons merely to keep himself in shape for surgery, also became an associate professor of surgery in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He conducted research and set a frenetic pace performing surgeries — nearly three times the normal annual tally of 200.
Dr. Drummond-Webb leaves his wife.
I had a friend whose dad was a doctor, and he used to beat his wife and daughters when he got outraged at little transgressions. His wife told my mom once that she didn't really mind the beatings because afterward he felt so remorseful that he'd let her do things like let her spend money on expensive luxuries.