When award-winning, serial philanthropist Maksim Grinberg is asked why he continues to help and give back to so many different organizations and nonprofits around the country, the answer is simple: helping others is something that has been engraved in his DNA for quite some time.
From an early age, Maksim Grinberg knew that he was destined to help and save people. It was his nature, as is said by close family and friends, and something that can be linked to Maksim Grinberg eventually deciding to pursue a career in medicine.
The reason behind pursuing, specifically, a surgical career path can be traced to his third year of physician assistant school, where he was in clinical rotations. One quiet summer evening, an extremely traumatic accident occurred on a farm, the young man made his way to the hospital Maksim Grinberg worked at. The man had fallen from the top of a tractor into machinery that dissevered his legs almost entirely. “I had never seen an emergency like this,” Maksim Grinberg explained. “I can still see and I can remember this emergency very clearly.”
The hospital served the Bendery and surrounding communities that were often very quiet towns. The majority of doctors were not in and in the middle of the night were harder to reach. “That was the night that I can never forget,” Maksim Grinberg said.
“I stood with the orthopedic surgeon and with a couple of nurses doing whatever I could do. For the first couple of hours the surgical team did not have any help and he coded a couple of times. The entire surgery lasted seven and a half to eight hours with other surgeons coming to help throughout.”
“A couple of days later, the man from the accident said to Maksim Grinberg ‘I didn’t know if I would ever see the light of day again. Thank you for helping to save my life.’”
These are the kinds of moments, Maksim Grinberg explained, that he totally made up his mind. He knew from that day that he wanted to dedicate his life to helping people, like he helped this young man in Bendery.
Although Maksim Grinberg did not become a doctor, he has still found ways to help and save people, which is evident and can be seen through his charitable acts around New York City and beyond.