Community stakeholders, including Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd) and the Midway Chamber of Commerce, helped break ground last Friday on a new Women’s Health Group building at 5333 S. Harlem.
The lot has been vacant for the last decade. Before that, it was a 3-Star Auto Service and a Wendy’s.
The land was purchased some time ago by the Awad family with plans to build a medical center to better serve the women in the Midway Area.
In 2012, Dr. Michael M. Awad joined the Women’s Health Group under his father, Dr. Madgy Awad, a respected member of the community who has compassionately cared for hundreds of women and delivered babies. The father-son duo worked together for nearly a decade before Dr. Madgy retired, ensuring that his son would take over the family OB/GYN practice.
It is one of the last private OB/GYN practices in the city of Chicago. While most private practices are absorbed or acquired by large medical practices, the Awads are building up and determined to ensure that women continue to pay affordable and fair prices to meet their healthcare needs without the need to travel far into the city or suburbs.
The April 17 ceremony drew a crowd of 50 people, including community members, community leaders, Women’s Health Group patients, and staff.
Dr. Mike thanked all those in attendance including his family, medical staff, physician assistants and nurses, architect Adam, developer Malik, and community leaders like Tabares.
He especially thanked his father, Dr. Madgy, “ a man with a vision and guts.”
Dr. Mike also gave thanks to his mother, saying, “Behind every strong man is an incredible woman.”
Mrs. Awad raised three boys while ensuring that the private practice ran smoothly, playing the roles of nurse, receptionist, and sometimes doctor, as Dr. Mike joked. He was appreciative of his parents’ hard work that they put behind the business over 40 years. He said it was their sacrifice and vision that allowed Friday’s expansion.
They are keeping the expansion work in the family, too. Summit Developmental Group, owned by Matthew Awad, son of Dr. Madgy and brother to Dr. Mike, is the on-site contractor for the project. He was in attendance, with his wife and daughter, Isabel.
Matthew is in charge of the construction, labor, and development.
Dr. Mike thanked his wonderful physician’s assistant, Jennifer, who sees the patients, and Tammy, who works in the billing office, keeping the patients happy. Both stood behind the rows of chairs and cheered in support.
“These are the people who support me every single day, and we are excited to not have to work on top of each other anymore because we’ve outgrown our space, and we have Jennifer sitting in random corners trying to chart and see her patients,” said Dr. Mike.
He also reflected on the history of the Women’s Health Group, which his father started in the ‘80s. When he started, Dr. Madgy would bring his patients back to a small room without a window. Now they are starting work on a new building to meet all of a woman’s health needs in one location.
He reminisced about coming to the Women’s Health Group at 5311 S. Harlem as a young boy and doing his homework in the backroom. One of his first patients, as a practicing doctor with his father, was a woman who had been his delivery nurse. She gave him his first bath and handed him over to his parents for the first time.
Midway Chamber of Commerce member, JJ Molodecki, attended the groundbreaking with his fellow board members.
“The main mission is to help to grow businesses that impact the neighborhood and impact the community,” he said, “We look at what they’re building to help to have an alternative to hospitals that’s going to be able to help out community members quickly, efficiently, don’t have to drive for a long period is what the neighborhood needs.”
Molodecki, a neighborhood resident himself, is always trying to get businesses in the area that help out residents and offer services that may not always be found locally.
“This is the only place in the area that does mammograms, which is critical for early detection,” he said. “The whole point is to build up what the community needs into cool areas. Anytime we, as the Chamber, can lock arms with other people, that’s what we want to do.”
Community members rallied in support for the new addition. Many of them have been patients themselves or their mothers, aunts, sisters, and daughters were treated there. Theresa Boruta, a lifelong patient of Dr. Madgy (later Dr. Mike), attended the groundbreaking ceremony with her 5-month-old daughter, Celeste. Her baby was delivered by Dr. Mike in November.
“It’s amazing to have such a committed and loving practice in the neighborhood. You don’t really find that family practice where the mom was delivered years ago, and then the daughter could be delivered as well. We truly admire and love the Awad family and what they’ve done for us as a family and a community,” said Boruta.
Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch President Al Cacciottolo was also at the groundbreaking.
“Over the years, I’ve helped Dr. Awad with any issues that he had in the neighborhood with the city as ward superintendent. We just became good friends.”
Cacciotolo sang praises of Dr. Madgy and his family as they developed a new building of such prestige in the community.
“I want to thank the Awad family for their dedication to bringing more health resources for women,” Tabares said. “It has been inspiring to witness Dr. Madgy Awad establish his practice in our community, followed by his son, Dr. Michael Awad, who has taken over the practice. They have outgrown their current facility, and today they broke ground where a new, large building will be built to serve residents on the Southwest Side.”
One of Awad’s physician assistants, who has been with the practice for three years, expressed her excitement about seeing Awad’s collective dream come into effect.
“We’ve been dreaming about making a new practice for a very long time,” she said. “We’ve outgrown our practice quite a while, and we’ve been really looking forward to looking at these blueprints for the last many years, and it’s finally coming together. We’re able to build a new space for patients in the community, and it’s something we’ve been looking forward to for a very, very long time.”
Construction on the new Women’s Health Group has commenced. No date has been given for the completion. Until the new building is finished, the Women’s Health Group on 5311 S. Harlem will continue serving its patients.
