Biographical Memoirs Volume 66 (1995) / Chapter Skim
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Robert Edward Gross
Robert Edward Gross
Pages 130-149
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From page 131... ...
Gross made many contributions that have altered the practice and understanding of surgery, pediatrics, and cardiology throughout the world. These include the performance for the first time of successful major surgery on the great vessels near the heart, with the ligation of a patent ductus arteriosus on August 26, 1938; the first successful corrective surgery of coarctation of the aorta in 1945; the performance of several other important, innovative surgical procedures; and one of the largest series in the world of successful open heart repairs of congenital anomalies of the heart in infants and children.
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From page 132... ...
He graduated in 1927 with honors from Carleton, Phi Beta Kappa, and entered Harvard Medical School. At the medical school Gross was one of the top students of his class, much stimulated by a fourth year elective surgical service with William E
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From page 133... ...
condemned children to heart failure, infections, and an early cleath. In 1937, as a resident at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Gross was appointed by Cutler to the position of George Gorham Peters Traveling Fellow.
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From page 134... ...
All subsequent patients were handled by careful local dissection placing double clamps on the ductus, then cutting the ductus in half and meticulously closing each end by suturing. This became the standard technique, giving completely satisfactory results.
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From page 135... ...
She stated, "We reminisced about our surgery and he laughed and said, 'You know, Lorraine, if you hadn't made it, ~ might have ended up here in Vermont as a farmer."' Almost immediately Gross began his studies on surgical correction of congenital narrowing or coarctai~on of the aorta. Gross described this in the same autobiographical note: As a next endeavor, attention became concentrated in 1938 on the possibility of surgical treatment for coarctation of the aorta.
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From page 136... ...
These events were widely heralded and immediately recognized throughout the world as amongst the first successful operations on what we now call cardiac surgery even though they were proceclures carried out on the great vessels within an inch or two of the heart, rather than on the heart itself. Other innovative procedures carried out by Gross included the correction of an anomalous arterial ring around the esophagus.
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From page 137... ...
This case opened the way for studying and identifying other patients with anomalous and troublesome pressure on the esophagus or the trachea, or both simultaneously. The list of patients coming to operation included those with double aortic arch, anomalous position of the left subclavian artery, anomalous left carotid artery, aberrant right subclavian artery, and others.
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From page 138... ...
All the pulmonary veins gathered into a single large trunk, running downward through the diaphragm. It was not at all difficult to ligate the lowest part of this trunk just at the diaphragm, and then open the trunk above this, so it could be widely anastomosed into the back of the left auricle.
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From page 139... ...
It was with this crevice that Gross carried out his extensive open cardiac repairs on newborn babies or very young infants with congenital heart disease. Despite this Willing interest in cardiovascular disease Gross did not lose his longstanding focus on the broad issues of surgical care of the infant.
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From page 140... ...
In 1959 he was given the Lasker award again, this time for his "foremost role in the extension of surgery to the relief or cure of other cardiovascular defects." His honors included the Gold Mecial of the American Surgical Association and honorary degrees from Carleton College (Minnesota) , Suffolk University (Boston)
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From page 141... ...
Greece bestowed on him the Gold Cross of the Royal Order of the Phoenix. In 1970 he was awarded the Henry Jacob Bigelow Award of the Boston Surgical Society, its highest honor.
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From page 142... ...
Gross' reserve, however, was not born of timidity. For thirty-five years of his life he was the epicenter of a surgical revolution and set in motion the development of cardiovascular surgery, establishing new principles used today throughout the world, both in the repair of congenital anomalies in children, in the surgery of infancy and childhood, and the application of many of these principles in the adult.
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From page 143... ...
ROBERT EDWARD GRO SS 143 He challenged the belief that the human heart was beyond repair, and brought heart surgery from the experimental laboratory to clinical reality."
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From page 144... ...
44 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS HONORS AND DISTINCTIONS DEGREES 1927 B.A., Carleton College 1931 M.D., Harvard University, Medical School HONORARY DEGREES 1951 1959 1961 1962 1963 1984 D.Sc., Carleton College M.D., Honoris Causa, Louvain University M.D., Honoris Causa, Turin University D.Sc., Suffolk University D.Sc., University of Sheffield D.Sc., Harvard University HOSPITAL AND UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS 193~36 Instructor in pathology, Harvard Medical School 1937-39 Instructor in surgery, Harvard Medical School 1939-40 Junior associate in surgery, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital 1939-42 Associate in surgery, Harvard Medical School 1939-46 Associate visiting surgeon, Children's Hospital, Boston 1940-46 Senior associate in surgery, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital 1942-47 Assistant professor of surgery, Harvard Medical School 1947-88 Ladd Professor of Children's Surgery, Harvard Medical School 1947-67 Surgeon-in-chief, Children's Hospital, Boston 1952 Surgeon-in-chief, pro-tempore, Ohio State University 1967-72 Surgeon-in-chief, cardiovascular surgery, Children's Hospital, Boston 1953 1955 1956 1958 1961 1967 PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES Honorary member, Reno Surgical Society Honorary member, Dallas Southern Clinical Society Honorary member, Buffalo Surgical Society Honorary appointment, American National Red Cross, North Shore chapter Honorary fellow, Spokane Surgical Society Honorary citation, Barnstable County chapter, Massachusetts Heart Association
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From page 145... ...
Royal College of Surgeons of England COMMITTEES 195~55 Director, American Heart Association 1958-60 Director, American Heart Association 1960 President, Massachusetts Heart Association 1963-64 President, American Association for Thoracic Surgery 1969-70 Board of directors, Massachusetts Heart Association 1970-71 First president, American Pediatric Surgical Association EDITORSHIPS 1970 Editorial board, Surgery 1940 1940 1954 1954 1956 1957 1959 1959 1959 1961 1962 1965 145 AWARD S F Mead-Johnson Award, American Academy of Pediatrics Rudolf Matas Vascular Surgery Award, Tulane University Children's Service Award, Toy Manufacturers of America Albert Lasker Award, American Public Health Association Roswell Park Gold Medal, Buffalo Surgical Society Gold Medal, Louisville Surgical Society Laeken Award, Brussels, Belgium Gold Medal, Detroit Surgical Association Billroth Medal, New York Academy of Medicine Gold Medal Award, Golden Slipper Square Club of Philadelphia Award of the Brotherhood Temple Ohabei Shalom, Brookline William E Ladd Medal Award, Surgical Section, American Academy of Pediatrics
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From page 146... ...
Farber and Dr. Neuhauser and the Children's Hospital Medical Center Henry Jacob Bigelow Memorial Medal Tina Award, Foundation for Children, Houston, Texas Certificate of Award, 26th annual Philadelphia book show, presented to W
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From page 147... ...
Ladd. Surgical treatment of duplications of alimentary tract; enterogenous cysts, enteric cysts, or ileum duplex.
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From page 148... ...
A method for surgical closure of interauricular septal defects.
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