[StBernard] Dr. Lucas DiLeo, who built Chalmette General Hospital, dies at 89

[Westley Annis]

Dr. Lucas DiLeo, who built Chalmette General Hospital, dies at 89
Print John Pope, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By John Pope, NOLA.com | The
Times-Picayune 
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on August 07, 2013 at 5:12 PM, updated August 07, 2013 at 5:14 PM

Dr. Lucas DiLeo, a St. Bernard Parish physician who built the parish's first
hospital, died April 23 at his home in Denver, N.C. He was 89.

A native New Orleanian who earned undergraduate and medical degrees at
Tulane University, Dr. DiLeo moved to Denver, where three of his children
live with their families, after Hurricane Katrina and its floodwaters
destroyed his Chalmette home and his practice.

Dr. DiLeo, the son of Sicilian immigrants, was a surgeon with an
internal-medicine practice. He frequently saw as many as 50 patients a day,
his son Anthony DiLeo said, and some paid for their care with produce or
crawfish.

For the first few years of his practice, St. Bernard Parish had no hospital
emergency room. As a result, people who needed urgent care had to go to New
Orleans, which put them at the mercy of the Industrial Canal drawbridge.

"If you had a heart attack, you were stuck in a car," the younger DiLeo
said.

To solve that problem, Dr. DiLeo built Chalmette General Hospital, which
opened in 1954.

Throughout his career, Dr. DiLeo had an insatiable thirst for knowledge,
said Doris DiLeo, his wife, who drove him to seminar after seminar so he
could keep up to date in his profession.

As a result, she said, Dr. DiLeo amassed about 300 hours of continuing
medical-education credits every year - 15 times the minimum that state law
requires.

"He had a photographic memory," Doris DiLeo said. "He would read about a
diagnosis and not see it for 15 or 20 years, but when it happened, he would
have total recall."

Dr. DiLeo continued his practice into his 80s, until August 2005, when 14
feet of Katrina's floodwaters overwhelmed his office and his home.

Besides his wife, survivors include three sons, Anthony and Marc DiLeo, both
of New Orleans, and Lucas Anthony DiLeo of Denver, N.C.; five daughters,
Diana DiLeo Berman of Gulfport, Miss., Debra DiLeo Sender of Naples, Fla.,
Daphne DiLeo Kissner of Baton Rouge and Rosa DiLeo Caudle and DeLena DiLeo
Stortz, both of Denver; 18 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

A reception will be held Tuesday - Dr. DiLeo's 90th birthday - from 3 to 7
p.m. in the Sicilian Room of Rocky and Carlo's Restaurant, 613 West St.
Bernard Highway.