Oncologist Stefan Sam: Doctor with guitar

EYou often have to slow down to avoid whistling down hallways or down stairs. Perhaps Stefan himself should do it – most of his patients should know anyway that the white-coated professor, who has a stethoscope in what is a typical profession cliché, has a second passion. In his room at the Ketteler Hospital in Offenbach, Sam takes care of people whose lives are limited by stomach and intestinal cancer, many of whom are undergoing palliative care. Every day he has to deal with the finiteness of human life as well as the limitations of what doctors can do.

This had an early impact on the doctor, who turned 64 in January, thanks in part to his experience as a young doctor in pediatric oncology. Work can hardly be closer than the death of a very young patient. But it is there that there are always healing successes that almost look like miracles. For what is so closely associated with his medical profession, Sam has, on the one hand, his profession as a medical ethicist who meaningfully expresses himself as a guest author and panelist. “I’m overconfident for some people,” he says. He has also spoken during the pandemic, such as in the triage law debate.

Support for the cultural life of Offenbach

If society wanted someone to do ethics in medicine, something had to be said. In any case, Sam does not consider himself a “moderator” of the medical and social debate. Which a few decades ago also motivated him to write. To compensate for these life and death issues, Sam has music. Always. That’s why a doctor, a medical ethicist, a musician, and a composer have equal status on their resumes. There are many physicians involved in music, but Sam takes the matter very seriously, despite his love of whistling and singing.

He trained as a church musician with a so-called C certificate, during his studies he worked part-time playing the organ at weddings and directing children’s choirs. Although, says Catholic Sam with a smirk, Protestant congregations have always paid more. As a guitarist and singer, he established himself early in Catholic church music, with the group Prophet and new spiritual songs that shaped an entire church movement, especially in the 1970s and 1980s.

A pillar of Offenbach’s cultural life has been this, at least in name, vocal ensemble Prophet, of which he is chairman. He never stopped composing hymns, singspiel and oratorios. It’s fun to write books, essays and guest articles for FAZ.

Others played golf,” Sam says with a smile. It’s not that he’s given up on it – he just wants to say that even a demanding job has free time. And that’s where he composes. He plays guitar and organ and sings with a vocal ensemble that was awarded the Offenbach Cultural Prize and last year, with the support of the Kulturfonds Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, among others, was able to hold a big concert in the year of Beethoven. , which was overdue due to the corona situation.