Mary Ellen Avery

Mary Ellen Avery, known as Mel Avery, ( born May 6, 1927 in Camden, † December 4, 2011 in West Orange ) was an American pediatrician. In 1959 she discovered the cause of the respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn ( infant respiratory distress syndrome, IRDS ) and thus enabled the development of therapies.

Life

Avery grew up in Moorestown, where her father owned a factory and her mother was deputy head of a high school. She studied chemistry at Wheaton College ( degree in 1948, summa cum laude) and then to 1952 medicine at Johns Hopkins University (as one of four students in a total of 90 first-year students ). She wanted to study medicine at Harvard Medical School actually the same, but these women took on until 1949. Suffering from tuberculosis, she spent some in Europe. The own illness aroused their interest in the function of the lungs. After residency training in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University ( Internship, Residency ), she went on a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. There Avery discovered in 1957 that was caused RDS in preterm infants by a lack of surfactant in the lungs. RDS was then one of the main causes of death in preterm infants. In 1960, she was Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, in charge of prematurity nursing station, then went to McGill University as Professor and Chair of Pediatrics and Chief Physician of the Montreal Children's Hospital and was from 1974 Professor of Pediatrics ( Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor ) at Harvard Medical School and first woman to lead as chief physician for a specialized department at this hospital. By 1985, Avery was Chief Physician ( Physician -in-Chief ) of the Boston Children's Hospital. She established the joint program of Neonatology their clinic with the Peter Bent Brigham and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.

After she retired in 1985 from her position, she worked for UNICEF worldwide campaigns for polio vaccination and oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea.

In 1968, she received the Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics, 1984, the Trudeau Medal from the American Lung Association, and in 1991 the National Medal of Science. In 1994, she was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, whose president she was 2003. In 2005, she received the John Howland Award, the highest award of the American Pediatric Society. She was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

She remained unmarried all his life.

Writings

• Issuer with R. Lewis: Pediatric Medicine, Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins 1994.
• With Barry D. Fletcher: Lung and its Disorders in the Newborn Infant, Saunders, 4th edition 1981.