I had another letter-to-the-editor (“Giving Lister his due”) published at Observer-Reporter today
(April 7). I commented on Bruce Kauffmann’s commentary last Sunday, “The
medical community’s Rodney Dangerfield” (recall we often heard “I don’t get no
respect” in his comic monologues) lamenting Lister didn’t get due respect from
American doctors.
If the greatness in medicine is measured by the number of lives saved, then
Lister is easily one of the greatest.
When Lister received a standing ovation in the Sixth International
Medical Congress in Amsterdam in 1879, the President, Professor Donder, “took
him by the hand, obtaining a moment’s silence, said, ‘Professor Lister, it is
not only admiration that we offer you, it is our gratitude that of the nations
to which we belong.’”
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| Dr. Joseph Lister |
Unfortunately American medical community was slow to accept and adopt his
antisepsis concept and technique, costing the lives of many, including
President James Garfield, who died of overwhelmed sepsis and multiple abscesses
(confirmed at autopsy) 80 days after being struck by an assassin’s bullet in
1881.
I don’t intend to bother you with the story of Dr. Lister, but it will be
worth your while to know that the Listers spent three months of their honeymoon
visiting leading medical institutions (hospitals and universities) in France
and Germany. His wife became his life-long
partner in life and in Lab.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was also trained
at prestigious hospitals in Paris before being awarded a medical degree from
Harvard Medical School (He is one of the people portrayed in David McCullough’s
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris). He may be more well known for his writing
than his contribution in medicine.
Listeria monocytogenes may not be a household name; but there were multiple
cantaloupes associated Listeria outbreaks in 2011.
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