HONOUR : DR. STANLEY J.DUDRICK [1935-2020]

HIS technique of feeding intravenously saved millions by millions :

As a 7-year-old, Stanley J. Dudrick was so impressed with the compassionate care that his mother received when she had a life-threatening fever that he decided right then and there to become a doctor.

''He was the developer, largely single-handedly, of total parenteral nutrition, a technique now taken for granted  but a long-awaited pipe dream'' when Dr. Durdrick began his research in the 1960s, said Dr. Stevan J. Scheinman, president of and dean of  Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pa.

That intravenous technique he said, ''has saved the lives of of tens of millions of people across the world.''

Dr. Scheiman ranked Dr. Dudrick with Joseph Lister and Ignaz semmelwers, who pioneered antiseptic medical procesures; William T.G. Morton, who popularized anesthesia during surgery; and Alexander Fleming, who is credited with the discovery of penicillin.

Dr. Dudrick went on to hold senior and administrative posts at Geisinger, the University of Pennsylvania, the university of Texas at Houston and Yale.

He was in his 20s, working as a surgical resident, when he encountered the unexplained deaths of at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.
Consulting with his mentor, Dr. Jonathan Rhoads, Dr. Dudrick often conducted research after midnight, when his shift was over, as he searched for a deterrent.

The World Students Society thanks author Sam Roberts.