Vera Maitinsky, devoted pediatrician from East Meadow, dies at 83

Vera Maitinsky’s love of helping her patients knew no limits, especially time.

One of the longest-working pediatricians at East Nassau Medical Group (HIP), Maitinsky often visited her patients at all hours of the night due to chronic insomnia, according to her family.

She also was a mentor of pediatricians in training, working with multiple generations throughout her practice, according to her daughter, Andrea Maitinsky Keins, a licensed psychologist in Massachusetts.

"She was known for rarely being on time because when she was with a patient she took all the time needed in order to address all their concerns and give them her full attention," she said. "She loved working with children and parents and following them throughout their lives."

Maitinsky died of multiple health complications surrounded by her children at the Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst, Massachusetts, on June 8. She was 83.

She was born on Sept. 22, 1936, in Florence, Italy. Her parents were in transit to Buenos Aires as they fled Nazi-occupied Europe, her daughter said.

She grew up as an only child in a German-Jewish enclave in Buenos Aires, and attended the Colegio Pestalozzi, a well-known bilingual German-Spanish school. As a young woman she studied dance, her family said.

Maitinsky often visited her grandmother in New York City during summer breaks, and traveled by cargo boat because her family thought boats were safer than flying, according to her friend of 54 years, Sheila Flitman, also a pediatrician.

"I remember her telling me a story when they arrived at a stop in Cuba, they weren’t able to go to the harbor because the boat was carrying munitions," said Flitman with a chuckle. "That was the safe way of traveling."

During a brief internship in physical therapy, Maitinsky met her future husband, Steven. The two fell in love and married in 1958 and they went on to study medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen in Germany and graduated in 1964, the family said.

They immigrated with their then-3-year-old daughter to Levittown to complete their training at Meadowbrook Hospital (later Nassau County Medical Center) and settled in East Meadow. She became a pediatrician at the East Nassau Medical Group in Hicksville where she remained for 38 years, according to her family.

A colleague remembered something unique about Maitinsky.

"If a child was vomiting or dehydrated, she’d give the parents a recipe for an imperial cocktail, an electrolyte solution, for their children. This was before the days of Pedialyte," said fellow pediatrician, Susan Trecartin. "She’d also tell them it tasted good with gin or vodka for themselves."

After her husband’s death in 2005 and her retirement, Maitinsky — who spoke English, Spanish and German fluently — resumed taking piano lessons, traveling, and doing tai chi, among other hobbies, according to her family. She moved to Amherst, Mass., in 2019 to be closer to her family.

Maitinsky is survived by her daughter, Andrea, and her husband, John Keins, of Amherst, Mass.; son, Jean-Paul, and his wife, Ilana Polyak, of Florence, Mass.; and four grandchildren. She was buried on June 12 at Beth Moses Cemetery in Pinelawn.