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Supporting the Future of Families She Helped Create

June 30, 2023
Supporting the Future of Families She Helped Create

Dr. Deborah Hebb didn’t necessarily mean to follow in her father’s footsteps when she became an obstetrician and gynecologist. But when she did, she knew the only place she wanted to practice was GBMC.

Dr. Hebb’s father, John H. “Jack” Hebb, Sr., died in 2015. His residency at Johns Hopkins was interrupted when he served in the Korean War, and when he returned, he completed his training at Women’s Hospital of Maryland, Baltimore City. When the hospital merged with the Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital to form GBMC, Dr. Hebb became a founding member of the medical staff, practicing gynecology for more than 40 years.

“I just feel GBMC is in my bones because my father was on the original faculty,” Dr. Deb Hebb said. “I was born at Women’s Hospital. My kids were born at GBMC, my granddaughter was born at GBMC, all my doctors are at GBMC. It’s our hospital and it’s an anchor for me.”

After having her first baby and finishing her residency at Johns Hopkins in the same year, Dr. Hebb got her privileges at GBMC in 1987. She also continued to build her own family, adding a second child, all while she and her husband— a federal prosecutor, now a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge—built demanding careers.

For Dr. Hebb especially, she was in a specialty dedicated to serving women, in an industry where women guided the majority of the decision-making, but where there were few women in leadership roles. Working for mostly men, she advocated for her ability to build and manage a family, for patients and for herself.

Probably just as poignant as her own family are the roughly 5,000 families she helped to create over the 35 years she practiced at GBMC. To this day, what she loved doing most was navigating mothers through a pregnancy and being there when they delivered. Every birth was special, but it was the complex cases she remembers the most.

“There are some births that are more special and those would be the infertility patients,” she recalled. “Those patients who had years of infertility and finally, successfully had a baby. People come up to me and ask if I remember their birth. At this point, the births I remember are the ones that were complicated so it’s a good thing if I don’t remember your birth!”

With a gift to The Promise Project, she ensured the families she created along the way have the support of their hospital through all stages of their life.

“Women are the ones who choose and direct healthcare for their families. When they come to GBMC and they have a good experience, they then identify GBMC as their hospital,” she said.

As a teenager, Dr. Hebb volunteered at GBMC and knows intimately how much the rooms needed an upgrade, but she is also looking forward to the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion’s completion after watching her mother go through lung cancer.

“She was taken care of by Dr. [Robert] Donegan and the whole [Sandra and Malcolm Berman] Cancer Center is great, but they need more space,” she said.

Dr. Hebb believes in supporting your community—church, community organizations, hospitals, nonprofits you believe in—but ultimately recognizing the need of those in your immediate vicinity and taking steps to do your part. Nowhere does she feel more in community than at GBMC.

“I have so many memories there,” she said. “When you are an obstetrician doing deliveries at odd times, you log a lot of hours in the actual building. I used to work the halls at 2 a.m. I believe in the place, and I believe in the mission. I felt like I should contribute. I feel a real connection to my parents when I’m there.”

And with her nephew, John Hopewell Hebb, III, wrapping up his first year of OB/GYN residency at Sinai, she will likely feel a real connection for years to come.

There are a few things about her specialty she worries about today— the assault on women’s reproductive rights with the overturning of Roe vs Wade, the lower numbers of OB/GYN residency applications in states with restrictive abortion laws, the large areas of the United States with maternal health deserts, the unacceptably high U.S. maternal mortality rates that are on track to worsen, and the availability of contraception, just to name a few— but she is grateful to have been part of a significant history at GBMC of taking great care of women.

With The Promise Project, she is confident this commitment to excellence in women’s healthcare will continue for years to come.

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