Dr. William Balash's half-century of medicine reflected deep concern for patients

A former colleague of Dr. William Balash will never forget the snowy night in January several years ago when he received a phone call at 2 a.m.

One of Balash’s patients was in the intensive care unit of Allegheny Valley Hospital. He wasn’t doing well.

“Dr. Balash cared about his patients very deeply. Everybody says they care about their patients. but he really did,” said Allegheny Health Network cardiologist Dr. Venkatraman Srinivasan. “He would call me at all hours of the day and night inquiring about his patients that I was also involved in taking care of in the hospital.

“I got dressed and drove down to the hospital. And who was standing there before me, all dressed up in a suit and being with the patient — it was Dr. Balash, at 2 in the morning.”

Balash had known the patient for a long time and he wanted to be there, even as the man was dying, Srinivasan said.

Dr. William R. Balash, a physician who had the heart of an old country doctor and a mind determined to keep up with the latest developments in medicine, died on April 13. He was 90.

Balash practiced internal medicine for over 50 years in the Alle-Kiski Valley. He had a private practice based in Harrison where he cared for hundreds of patients around the region. He held several leadership positions at Allegheny Valley Hospital, including president of the medical staff.

He retired in 2010 but kept studying and maintained his medical license until last December.

“Before he retired, he worked 24/7 and 365 days a year,” Srinivasan said. “Unless he was out of town, he took all his calls day and night, day after day. That doesn’t happen these days.”

Balash even made house calls.

“He was from Leechburg (orginally) and he would go up to Leechburg and Vandergrift to do house calls on patients in the evening,” said Harrison osteopath Dr. Darrell Petz. “He’d take an EKG machine with him and off he went. This was after his office hours and he worked hard.

“He was a very kind, caring man. He worked until he was 80. That’s a long time.”

Balash was born and raised in Leechburg, the son of Irene and Joseph Balash. He became interested in medicine at a young age. After attending pharmacy school for a year, he decided to study chemistry. After getting his bachelor of science degree from Allegheny College in 1952, Balash earned his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1956.

He completed residencies in internal medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Pittsburgh.

“Dr. Balash was an inspiration and a role model for me,” said former AVH physician Dr. Malcolm Berger. “He was the embodiment of the classic physician; but on top of that, he was a modern one. He would look at research studies, study the literature and keep on top of everything.”

Berger said Balash would doggedly stay with a case no matter how difficult.

“He would stay with a case and stay with it until he understood it. He helped so many people when other doctors would have just tossed in the towel,” Berger said. “He made diagnoses that saved people’s lives that would have otherwise been missed. It’s the kind of doctor he was.”

And when he caught a mistake made by another doctor, Balash was very courteous in how he handled it.

“One time I was writing some orders on one of his patients in the ICU and I did a calculation wrongly on some cardiac meds,” said dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Weaver. “He called me into his office that night and it was late. He very graciously told me that I made a mistake and told me how to correct it. I’ll never forget that.”

In his spare time, Balash was an avid golfer who also enjoyed traveling and spending time at his cottage along the Allegheny River.

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Theola; his daughter Lisa, of Harrison; and son William Joseph of Hobe Sound, Fla.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Joseph.

A private service was held. Memorial contributions can be made to the Balash Scholarship Fund at Washington & Jefferson College, 60 S. Lincoln St., Washington, PA 15301.