The Paul DudIey White Coronary Care System at St. Agnes Hospital has been Named in Honor of the "Father of Modern Cardiology"

More than any other man in medical history, Dr. Paul Dudley White was influential in bringing to realization our present progressive era in cardiovascular medicine. Through his indefatigable travels, his countless lectures , and his voluminous writings, Dr. White succeeded in focusing national and international attention on cardiovascular problems and on the vital need for public and professional support of programs to combat ailments of the heart and blood vessels. In many of these efforts, he acted as a "catalyst" in bringing different factions, disciplines, and even countries together to enable them to work together and improve our understanding of cardiology.

Dr. White characterized his intern days of 1912 as "The Dark Ages just before the dawn of the Golden Age in medicine." Few men contributed more in bringing this Golden Age to full fruition. It was he who introduced the first electrocardiograph to this country ... who paved the way for the specialty practice of cardiology ... and who was a leader in establishing the American Heart Association as a professional voluntary health agency. He was considered the activating force and leading spokesman for international cooperation in the cardiovascular field.

As a clinician, Dr. White's primary concern has always been for his patients. One of his pupils recalls that when he taught, "He not only listens to the heart, he listens to you." Gifted with a truly adventurous scientific mind, unbounded by space or spirit, he will be considered America's and the world's foremost "Ambassador of Cardiovascular Medicine."

Recently while on Coronary Care Rounds, a baby-faced youngster (medical student) excused himself for being part of the generation gap and wanted to know "who was this person, Dr. Paul Dudley White, that the Coronary Care System at St. Agnes was named after in 1973?" It was then and there that I experienced my first "anginal attack" (jokingly) as I was stunned as in electrified, hurt as in mortified, and anguished as in mystified as to how a man so profoundly respected a decade ago became lost in our memories so fast.

Dr. Paul Dudley White was no ordinary man. He was the essence of humanism and reflected it daily throughout his life. These features included creativeness, insatiable curiosity, intelligence in the form of wisdom, but displayed in gentleness on an international scene. In a day when international flights were just starting, he became our "roving ambassador of medicine" and so catapulted cardiac research and understanding that his fever excited all of mankind. He was received and welcomed in so many countries that friends of mine from across the world still talk of his personally visiting each and every one of their countries. Yet he always seemed to make time to come home and have an active practice that he continued for clinical observations. He used this workbench to create new ideas and new discoveries. He once said that the heart was created so well that it could easily go on for one hundred years and that it was our lifestyles, our cigarette smoking, our drinking, our stresses, and our inactivity that contributed to the early demise of this wonderful pump.

On the day he visited St. Agnes Hospital, he was in his late 80s and had traveled from Boston alone. His plane could not land at Baltimore Washington Airport, but had to go to a Washington, D.C. airport and he was more than one hour late. No one knew where he was, but no one left the St. Agnes Auditorium (DePaul Building). The entire Hospital was invited to this event and it was packed not only with physicians and their wives, but also with laboratory people, cleaning people, and a variety of people who knew only about "the man" Dr. Paul Dudley White, through his numerous travels in the papers and his personal touch on the lives of many. Dr. Paul Dudley White arrived one hour late in a taxi cab, apologized for his tardiness and he literally ran right for the stage. His presentation on atherosclerosis was very well received and he answered questions from everyone. Later that day, he made his rounds in the Coronary Care Unit and cut the EKG ribbon acknowledging the Unit that was to be named in his honor. Enclosed please find a letter from Dr. White just after he returned to Boston. It reflects the person he was--simple, very observant, very appreciative of life. Even though he died some six months after visiting us at the age of 87, his spirit remains with us, in a never ending fashion. His dedication remains as a pillar of strength in our efforts to have the one and only Paul Dudley White Coronary Care System in this country as well as in the world. He was a living legend in the field of Cardiology. He was considered the "father of cardiology" in the United States as well as the "world's foremost ambassador of cardiovascular medicine." His memory lingers on in the minds of those who respect the past and derive from it the energies needed for future cardiac progress.

In 1986, Dr. Paul Dudley White would have been 100 years old. Our Coronary Care Unit, now called "System" because of its community direction of early intervention care, will be 8 years old and will be entering into a most exciting era of cardiac medicine (and for that matter, medicine in general), namely, early intervention of the number one killer of the adult population in the United States. It is exciting because it will help salvage not only lives, but muscle needed for life existence. We look forward to continue the relentless energy, curiosity, and gentleness bestowed on us by Dr. Paul Dudley White, the "Giant in Cardiac Medicine" who continues to live among us.

Just a line to tell you that I have gotten back safely but in devious ways, something like my travel to St. Agnes Hospital. The flying business is pretty mixed up nowadays and the search for bandits pretty depressing, but I guess effective, in getting on the planes. I found for example the Allegheny plane, which was much belated, and I had to come back through New York, full of smoke -- everybody smoking.

I wanted to send my great appreciation to you and your staff for your reception of me and the very interesting time I had in your now called Paul Dudley White coronary care unit. I enjoyed the meeting and was glad to see some old friends.

The inspector at the airport was very curious about the present I had, which was the silver plate with the engraving of the frigate Constellation -- it apparently rang the bell when I went through the detection device. They were very suspicious until they looked at the beautiful inscription at the back of the plate.

Please give all your associates and especially the nurses my best wishes and I hope to see you and your wife up here next fall at the MGH cardiac meeting.

Sincerely yours,

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