Friday, March 29th 2024   |

Local physician Peter Zimmerman dies suddenly; funeral in NY

PETER ZIMMERMAN, M.D., a pain management specialist with offices in Metairie, Slidell and Baton Rouge, died suddenly on Friday, June 23. He was 57.

Zimmerman was a physiatrist, whose work involved determining the cause of pain in his patients and treating them with medication, injections or other treatments to diminish or completely eliminate their pain response.

Many described Zimmerman’s ability to treat patients as based on an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the root causes of pain, especially those dealing with spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulators. He was associated with a number of hospitals, but for the past five years had been a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesia at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Zimmerman worked in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas for Louisiana Medical Clinic, LA Health Solutions and SHIPS Medical/Louisiana Speciality Institute.

Zimmerman was born in New York City and graduated from the Waldorf School in Garden City in Nassau County on Long Island, NY before attending Dartmouth College. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree there, he matriculated to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL to obtain the first of his professional degrees, an M.D., from the Feinberg School of Medicine in 1988. Dr. Zimmerman enrolled in the Fordham School of Law in New York City in 1991. He received his J.D. degree in 1994.

Dr. Zimmerman began to serve his residency at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans in 2003. However, his work was cut short during the period after August of 2005, when the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina shut down the medical facility. He was able to serve out the remainder of his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation by December of 2005.

Zimmerman received additional training as a fellow in interventional spine/pain management at Emory University from January through December of 2006.

He returned to New Orleans in 2007 and worked for several years with his mentor and friend, Dr. Charles Aprill at Interventional Spine Specialists and also worked briefly for Jefferson Orthopedic Clinic on the West Bank in Marrero.

Dr. Zimmerman is survived by his father.

A funeral service was held on Wednesday, June 28 at 11:00 a.m. at Guttermans Funeral Home, 175 N. Long Beach Road in Rockville Centre, NY. Rabbi Jack Zanerhaft of Temple Emanu-El of Long Beach, NY officiated. .

A memorial service for Zimmerman’s New Orleans friends and patients will held at at time and place yet to be determined.

 

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