Legends of Neonatology
Gala and Awards Ceremony
February 25, 2011 - 7:00 p.m.
The Neonatology Hall of Fame was established in 2007. Since its inception, The Legends Gala and Awards Ceremony have honored remarkable individuals whose efforts have added so much to the care of the critically-ill neonate.
Dr. Stanley Dudrick
Born in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1935, Dr. Dudrick received his B.S. in Biology with Honors in 1957 from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, graduating Cum Laude. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor fraternity and was awarded the Williamson Medal as the outstanding member of his graduating class. His M.D. degree was conferred by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1961 followed by a rotating internship and residency training in General Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he served as Chief Resident in Surgery under Dr. Jonathan E. Rhoads until 1967. After his training, he joined the faculty at Penn and ascended in rank from Instructor to Professor of Surgery at his alma mater within five years. In 1972, he was recruited to Houston as the first Professor and Founding Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the then new University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Chief of Surgical Services at Hermann Hospital/The University Hospital.
Stanley J. Dudrick, M.D. is widely recognized and respected throughout the scientific, academic and clinical world for his innovative and pioneering research in the development of the specialized central venous feeding technique known as intravenous hyperalimentation (IVH) or total parenteral nutrition (TPN). The basic investigative development and subsequent successful clinical application of this highly effective therapeutic modality has been described as one of the four most significant accomplishments in the history of the development of modern surgery, together with the discovery and development of asepsis and antisepsis, antibiotic therapy and anesthesia (JAMA 239:192, 1978). It has also been acknowledged as one of the three most important advancements in surgery during the past century along with open heart surgery and organ transplantation.
In 2002, his former residents and fellows, colleagues, patients and friends established the Stanley J. Dudrick Research and Education Fund in the Department of Surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital, Waterbury, Connecticut. He has received multiple teaching awards from his students and residents throughout his tenure at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and Yale University School of Medicine.
Dr. Dudrick’s investigative endeavors have been focused primarily surgical techniques and the nutritional and biochemical manipulation of amino acid, carbohydrate, fat and micronutrient metabolism and their interrelationships with nutritional status, optimal human cellular performance, and outcomes in critically ill patients.
Dr. Forrest Bird
Dr. Forrest Bird was born in Stoughton , Massachusetts . His father, a World War I pilot, encouraged him to solo in an airplane by age 14, and by 16 he had been tutored toward earning major flight authorizations.
During World War II, as an officer with the Army Air Corps, Dr. Bird became a technical air training officer, which allowed him to learn to fly almost every airplane then available. At that time supercharged airplanes were beginning to exceed the altitudes at which pilots could breathe unaided. This provided Dr. Bird his first chance at developing technology for aiding breathing. After an Air Corps physician presented him textbooks on mammalian pathophysiology he became a lifelong student of the subject.
In 1954, Forrest Bird founded the Bird Products Corporation to market and develop his respirator devices. He tested the device by traveling in his own airplanes to medical schools and asking doctors for their most ill patients. In each case, known therapies had failed and the patient was expected to die of cardiopulmonary failure. By 1955, after having attended numerous medical schools and completed diverse residencies, Forrest Bird had perfected the Bird Universal Medical Respirator for acute or chronic cardiopulmonary care. It was the first universal mass-produced medical respirator and was sold under the trade name of the Bird Mark 7 Respirator.
Nicknamed the “Babybird” respirator, Forrest Bird invented a pediatric respirator in 1970 that greatly reduced infant mortality for babies with respiratory problems.
By the 1980s, Forrest Bird invented the Intrapulmonary Percussive Ventilation or IPV, a major advance in mechanical cardiopulmonary care.
In 1992, the V.I.P Bird Infant Pediatric System was introduced. The TBird Ventilator Series is the first and only ventilator that is truly mobile.
On October 7, 2009, President Barack Obama awarded Bird the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, recognition of his “outstanding contributions to the promotion of technology for the improvement of the economic, environmental or social well-being of the United States.
Neonatology Hall of Fame Past Honorees
The late Virginia Apgar
Mary Ellen Avery
Robert Bartlett
John A. Clements
Avroy Fanaroff
George Gregory
Marshall Klaus
Jerold Lucey
William Norwood
Maria Delivoria-Papadopoulos
Lucille Ann Papile
Mildred Stahlman
