Michael Vitez

Michael Thomas Vitez (born April 11, 1957) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. He is the son of immigrants, his father having fled from Budapest, Hungary in 1939, and his mother came to America from Europe as a German Jew in 1941; both leaving their homeland to escape from Hitler's reign. He is the director of narrative medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, after serving as a journalist over a three decade career (1985-2015) with The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has authored four books, one based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning stories, Final Choices.

Biography

Background and education Vitez was born on April 11, 1957, in Washington, DC and grew up in North Springfield, in northern Virginia. He is the son of immigrants, his father, Thomas Vitez, fled Budapest, Hungary in 1939, and his mother, Marianne, came to America from Europe as a German Jew in 1941; both leaving their homeland to escape from Hitler's reign. His parents met in New York City, eventually moving to the Washington area. Even though his parents both wrote their own biographies, he told their stories in his book, Great Americans. He is married to Maureen Fitzgerald, and they have three children.

Vitez has had a long career in Philadelphia, as a general-assignment feature writer. After completing eight months as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in 1994–95, Vitez began to focus on aging, and end-of-life decisions. In 1997, Vitez, along with Inquirer photographers April Saul and Ron Cortes, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for a series of articles he wrote on end-of-life care, telling the stories of terminally ill patients who wished to die with dignity. The book features glossy, color photos by Inquirer photographer and fellow Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Gralish, and an introduction by the star of the Rocky movies, Sylvester Stallone.

His focus on end-of-life care continued, and Vitez was granted access, for 18-months, to Abington Memorial Hospital, in Pennsylvania. in 2010, Vitez wrote a story about palliative care, "A look at the New Field of Palliative Care." His second article, "One 's Simple Measure to Defeat Infections," described how a simple hand-washing campaign, could save lives and prevent needless infections.

In 2015, Vitez left the Inquirer to serve as the director of narrative medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. He also teaches elective courses at the university.