A Tribute: George Berci, MD, 1921-2024

Newswise — LOS ANGELES (Sept. 4, 2024) -- George Berci, MD, led an improbable and monumental life. As a young man, he survived the Holocaust and went on to become an internationally renowned surgical pioneer who developed many of the minimally invasive tools and techniques that are used in operating rooms and procedure suites around the world today.

Dr. Berci passed away on Aug. 30 at the age of 103, ending a distinguished career as a groundbreaking innovator who revolutionized the field of endoscopic surgery. A gifted violinist who chose medicine at his mother’s urging, Dr. Berci came to Cedars-Sinai in the 1970s and remained actively engaged into his 100s as professor emeritus and senior director of Surgical Endoscopy and Innovation Research.

"George was a towering figure in our profession," said Edward H. Phillips, MD, executive vice chair of the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery, a longtime collaborator with Dr. Berci and a close friend of the Berci family. “His profound legacy lives on in the hundreds—if not thousands—of medical students and surgeons influenced by his innovations and ideas."

Dr. Berci's designs and use of micro-instrumentation—including fiber optic-based lighting and cameras—paved the way for the development of endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. Compared to traditional open surgical methods, the new, minimally invasive procedures required far smaller incisions, dramatically reducing patients’ pain and recovery times.

"The techniques Dr. Berci developed have had a profound impact on a generation of surgeons," said Bruce L. Gewertz, MD, Cedars-Sinai surgeon-in-chief and vice dean of Faculty Affairs and Clinical System Development. “He was a brilliant and creative physician, but beyond that he was one of the best medical educators we’ve ever seen.”

A familiar presence at the medical center for decades, the Hungarian-born immigrant always slept with a pen and a yellow notepad by his bed to draw surgical innovations as they came to him. He was known for his ingenuity, persistence and wry sense of humor.

Dr. Berci’s influence and achievement in the field are all the more extraordinary given that medicine was not his primary passion during his formative years. The son of the assistant conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Dr. Berci showed considerable promise as a violinist and could play concertos by age 10.

A Conscripted Nazi Laborer

Following his mother's wishes, Dr. Berci would pursue a career in medicine, but his professional path was stalled by the outbreak of World War II, when he was forced to work as a laborer for the Nazis. During one especially grim winter assignment, he spent months in the Romanian mountains, digging into the cold, hard ground to build defensive fortifications. Later, Dr. Berci was transferred to a railway center near the Polish-Czech border, where he unloaded explosives for the Axis war effort.

"Unfortunately, I had a terrible early life in respect to being a Jew," said Dr. Berci, who often shared his story of survival with student groups at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. "The next generation needs to know about what happened."

Escape to the Underground

In the summer of 1944, Dr. Berci and hundreds of other conscripted Jewish laborers were packed onto a train destined for the death camps. The train stopped near the Hungarian capital during an air bombardment by British and American forces, which caused guards to flee.

"Everybody disappeared," Dr. Berci recalled. "So, we disappeared, too."

Soon Dr. Berci was recruited to work for the Hungarian underground and became part of a large-scale operation of forging papers. The network was organized by the Swiss Vice-Consul Carl Lutz, who helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews by issuing false protective letters.

During this period, Dr. Berci frequently carried false documents in a briefcase to deliver to Jews in hiding throughout the city. Had he been stopped by German or Hungarian fascists, he would have been killed. 

"This was extremely dangerous," he said. "But I did it because it had to be done."

Medical Degree and the Soviet Invasion

After the war, Dr. Berci remained in Hungary and earned a medical degree from the University of Szeged in 1950. He continued surgical training before moving in 1953 to Budapest, where he helped establish an experimental surgical division.

In 1956, the Soviet army marched into Budapest to crush the Hungarian revolt against its satellite Communist regime. After a fierce battle near the Parliament building, some 250 casualties poured into his nearby hospital, Dr. Berci recalled. After two straight days of administering treatment, doctors ran out of basic medical supplies and blood.

By 1957, Dr. Berci, who did not then speak English, moved to Australia after being awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in the Alfred and Royal Melbourne hospitals. There, he viewed the inside of a dilated common bile duct with an old cystoscope, the available instrument at the time that allowed a view of the inner duct but provided poor image quality. That experience propelled Dr. Berci into his life's work.

Recruited to Cedars-Sinai

In 1967, Dr. Berci was recruited to join the Cedars-Sinai Department of Surgery as a visiting scholar by Leon Morgenstern, MD, then the chair of Surgery. Several years later, Dr. Berci joined the faculty as full-time director of a multidisciplinary surgical endoscopy unit, a new idea at the time.

It was at Cedars-Sinai in the 1970s that Dr. Berci pioneered work that greatly improved illumination—a critical advancement that touched nearly every procedural specialty and led to new endoscopic applications in many areas.

Honors and Awards

Dr. Berci's vast contributions to medicine brought him significant acclaim. In 1992, he received Cedars-Sinai’s Pioneer in Medicine Award. In 2011, he was awarded the Jacobson Innovation Award from the American College of Surgeons. The honor recognizes surgeons who have provided a new development or technique in a surgical field.

In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Semmelweis University in Budapest and had a building named in his honor. He was also a clinical professor emeritus of Surgery at the University of California and the University of Southern California. In June 2017, he received the inaugural Cedars-Sinai Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Berci was a founding member of the International Biliary Association and a founding member and past president of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, which created the SAGES George Berci Lifetime Achievement Award in Endoscopic Surgery.

“Dr. Berci’s contributions have left an indelible mark on the medical community, and his legacy will continue to influence the practice of surgery for generations to come,” SAGES said in a message to members shortly after his passing. “His passing is a significant loss to all who knew him and to the broader medical field.”

Cristina R. Ferrone, MD, chair of the Randall Department of Surgery, remembered Dr. Berci as a remarkable figure whose influence continues to be felt throughout the surgical community.

“Dr. Berci spent more than half of his long and extraordinary life in service at Cedars-Sinai, where he will be remembered fondly for immeasurable contributions to the surgical field as well as his commitment and passion for medicine,” Ferrone said.

Dr. Berci is survived by four children and six grandchildren.