Hospital of Central Connecticut surgeon receives service award

NEW BRITAIN – Dr. David A. J. Belman, an orthopedic surgeon from West Hartford, was presented with the Hospital of Central Connecticut's William A. Petit, Jr. Physician Service Award. 

The award was presented recently at the hospital's New Britain General campus. Belman's name will be on a plaque in the campus lobby. The annual award recognizes extraordinary commitment and service to the hospital, the community, the medical staff or patients.  

Belman has a long history of community service worldwide. A member of the Christian Medical and Dental Association, he has done medical missionary work in Honduras, Zimbabwe, Mexico and Jamaica, and educated medical missionaries in Kenya. 

Belman's non-medical mission work includes helping to build a church in Jamaica; participating in reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Katrina; and serving as religious educator at Bethany Covenant Church in Berlin, where he participates in church-sponsored activities for Feed My Starving Children, an international famine relief organization. Belman also tutors students at Lincoln Elementary School in New Britain and the Children's Home of Cromwell. For the past 30 years he has also narrated books on tape for the blind. 

"Dr. Belman's faith-based community service is an example for all to admire and emulate for its breadth and depth, for the lifetime nature of his commitment, and for his definition of community as all of the people of the world," said Michael McNamee, M.D., director of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine. 

Petit was previously medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate at the hospital and director of the section of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes. He is very active in the community. The Petit Family Foundation he created to honor the memories of his wife, Jennifer Lynn Hawke-Petit, and their daughters, Hayley Elizabeth Petit and Michaela Rose Petit, funds programs focused on education, chronic illness and those that support people affected by violence. Nominees for the Physician Service Award embody Petit's spirit of altruism, commitment and excellence.

Photo - David A.J. Belman, M.D., right, of West Hartford, received The Hospital of Central Connecticut's William A. Petit, Jr., M.D., Physician Service Award Dec. 6. The award was presented by Petit, left, and Akella Sarma, M.D., the hospital's chief of staff.