Patient honors his doc with $250K donation

YOUNGSTOWN — Gratitude to the physician who saved his life is why Ben Lupo, owner of D&L Energy Group, has pledged $250,000 to the Tommy Detesco Fund for Adolescents and Young Adult Brain Tumor Research.

Lupo, 58, credited Dr. Thomas N. Detesco of Poland, Tommy’s father, for saving his life by “expertly managing” his anemia.

“I’ve know Dr. Detesco for 30 years. He is my physician and friend. I owe him much and I hope my gift will pay him back in part,” Lupo said Wednesday in presenting the donation to Dr. Detesco.

Thomas Andrew Detesco was afflicted intermittently by a brain tumor from the age of 3 until he was 32, his age when he died Aug. 31, 2007.

His father started the Tommy fund last May as a tribute to his son, whose life, Dr. Detesco said, was extended by research and new treatments allowing him to become an inspiration to his family and friends and serve as a model for other brain cancer patients.

Detesco said the goal of the Tommy fund, which supports research and clinical treatments at the Cleveland Clinic Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center, is to create an endowed chair at the clinic dedicated exclusively to research in adolescent and young-adult brain tumors.

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