Autograph Letter, Signed, from Helen B. Taussig to Mr. Basil O'Connor, July 21, 1963.

TAUSSIG, Helen B. [O'CONNOR, Basil]

Verlag: 1963.

Beschreibung

2 pages. 2 holes punched in the upper blank margin. Very Good. Letterhead: Helen B. Taussig, M.D., Cotuit, Massachusetts. Dear Mr. O'Connor, Once again I am indebted/ to you for your kind hospitality. The/ Second International Conference on/ Congenital Malformations was a great/ success. You added greatly to our/ pleasure by the opening reception which/ gave us an opportunity to meet you/ & Mrs. O'Connor & all those responsible/ for the meeting. Thank you for/ including me in your special reception/ to Dr. Stafford Warren before the/ dinner on Wednesday./ The social entertainment was/ extremely pleasant & the scientific/ papers of high quality. What more/ could any one ask or even hope for!/ With kind regards to you/ & Mrs. O'Connor/ Sincerely yours/ Helen B. Taussig/ July 21, 1963. Quoting from the Wikipedia page for Helen Taussig: "Helen Brooke Taussig (May 24, 1898 May 20, 1986) was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. She is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot (the most common cause of blue baby syndrome). This concept was applied in practice as a procedure known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt. The procedure was developed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who were Taussig's colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Taussig was partially deaf following an ear infection in childhood; in early adulthood this progressed to full deafness. To compensate for her loss of hearing, she learned to use lip-reading techniques and hearing aids to speak with her patients. Taussig also developed a method of using her fingers, rather than a stethoscope, to feel the rhythm of their heartbeats. Some of her innovations have been attributed to her ability to diagnose heart problems by touch rather than by sound. Taussig is also known for her work in banning thalidomide and was widely recognized as a highly skilled physician. She was the first woman to be elected head of the American Heart Association. She was more proud of the fact that she was the first pediatrician to be elected head of the AMA; and in 1964 she was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom." Quoting from the Wikipedia page for Basil O'Connor: "In cooperation with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt he started two foundations for the rehabilitation of polio patients and the research on polio prevention and treatment. From 1944 to 1949 he was chairman and president of theAmerican Red Cross and from 1945 to 1950 he was chairman of the League of Red Cross Societies. . . ." His fundraising prowess for medicine was without equal in his day: "O'Connor devoted much of his time to the work in the two foundations which he presided over until his death. His efforts in fundraising were much more successful than those of other foundations. For example, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis succeeded in collecting $66.9 million in 1954 for 100,000 new patients, while in the case of about 10 million patients with heart diseases only $11.3 million were donated. In 1958 O'Connor received the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service of the Lasker Foundation in recognition of his efforts in the fight against polio. On January 2, 1958 the National Foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary at Warm Springs, Georgia and Basil O'Connor was honored by having his bust inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame next to FDR and fifteen polio scientists from two centuries." Four years before in 1954 Alfred Blalock and Helen B. Taussig received the Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for their first successful "blue baby" operation [in 1944]. At the Second International Conference on Congenital Malformations to which Taussig refers in her letter, O'Connor spoke, giving the opening address: "Science--a Struggle for Truth.". Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 16986

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Autograph Letter, Signed, from Helen B. ...

Verlag: 1963.

Einband: No Binding

Zustand: Very Good