Orvar swenson biography of williams

Biography

• Born on September 8, 1880 in Massachusetts as the sixth of seven children
• 1906 – Graduated with an MD from Harvard Medical School
• 1910-1913 Assistant Visiting Surgeon to the Boston City Hospital, Infant’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital and Milton Hospital
• 1912 – Assistant in Surgery at Harvard Medical School
• 1917 – On December 6, in Halifax harbour, Canada, the French cargo ship the S.S. Mont-Blanc, filled with wartime explosives, collided with the S.S. Nimo, a Norwegian ship. The detonation resulted in 2,000 deaths and 9,000 injured. Ladd arrived on scene within 24-hours in charge of a Red Cross Unit with enough equipment for a 500-bed hospital. He treated thousands of the injured, including hundreds of children with burns and lacerations. On returning to Boston, Ladd devoted himself entirely to the surgical care of infants and children
• 1927 – Surgeon-in-Chief at Boston Children’s Hospital
• 1941 – co-authored the first modern American paediatric surgical textbook (Abdominal Surgery of Infancy and Childhood) with Robert E. Gross (1905-1988)
• Died on April 15, 1967

Medical Eponyms

Ladd bands (1932)

Anomalous congenital peritoneal bands attaching the caecum to the posterior abdominal wall in cases of intestinal malrotation

In 1932, Ladd published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled ‘‘Congenital Obstruction of the Duodenum in Children.’’ Such cases had been described previously, however this condition was often overlooked by doctors. Ladd described the embryological cause of the disease, attributing it to the incomplete rotation of the intestines, leading to the attachment of the caecum to the posterior abdominal wall by the ‘mesenteric attachments,’ resulting in duodenal obstruction.

These attachments were later referred to as Ladd bands.

Ladd’s syndrome (1932)

Congenital obstruction of the duodenum secondary to peritoneal bands (Ladd&

CHARLESTON, S.C - CHARLESTON, S.C. - Orvar Swenson, M.D., passed away April 13, 2012. He was born Feb. 7, 1909, in Helsingborg, Sweden, the third child of Amanda and Carl Albert Swenson. He grew up with his brother, Alvin; and sister, Lillie. His father was a wheelwright and a missionary of Reorganized Church of the Latter Day Saints, now known as Community of Christ. In 1917, his family immigrated to Independence, Mo. By the time he reached his teenage years both of his parents had died. He and his brother lived in a boarding house and started a business making fire by friction sets for the Boy Scouts. This business, Woodcraft, grew to include archery equipment and, for a short time, field hockey sticks. It is now a nationwide company selling equipment and tools for woodworking. In 1929, Orvar graduated from William Chrisman High School, Independence, Mo., where he had been elected president of the student council, was captain of the debate team and president of Anti Smoking League. He graduated from William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo., in 1933. He then forsook the business world and entered Harvard University Medical School, Boston. He and his brother, Alvin, were in the same class and shared textbooks. After graduation he served his internship at Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. He returned to the Harvard University program at Boston Lying In Hospital for his surgical residency. He spent a year as Tracey Cabot Fellow doing research on Hirschsprung's Disease and during that year developed a bowel resection procedure that became a cure for this disease. In 1941, he married Melva Elizabeth Criley from Independence, Mo. They honeymooned in the Smokey Mountains on their way to Boston where they settled and raised their three daughters. In 1945, he became an assistant professor in pediatric surgery at Harvard University, Boston, where he was a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital and worked with Dr. Robert

Orvar Swenson, M.D., was born in Helsingborg, Sweden on February 7, 1909. He was the third child of Amanda and Carl Albert Swenson. He grew up with his brother Alvin and sister Lillie. His father was a wheelwright and a missionary of the Reorganized Church of the Latter Day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ). In 1917 his family immigrated to Independence, Missouri.

By the time he reached his teenage years both of his parents had died. He and his brother lived in a boarding house and started a business making fire by friction sets for the Boy Scouts. This business, "Woodcraft", grew to include archery equipment and, for a short time, field hockey sticks. (It is now a nationwide company selling equipment and tools for woodworking.) In 1929 Orvar graduated from William Chrisman High School in Independence, Missouri where he had been elected President of the Student Council, was Captain of the Debate Team and President of the Anti Smoking League. He graduated from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri in 1933. He then forsook the business world and entered Harvard University Medical School in Boston. He and his brother Alvin were in the same class and shared textbooks. After graduation he served his internship at Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He returned to the Harvard University Program at Boston Lying In Hospital for his surgical residency. He spent a year as the Tracey Cabot Fellow doing research on Hirschsprung's Disease and during that year developed a bowel resection procedure that became a cure for this disease.

In 1941 he married Melva Elizabeth Criley from Independence, Missouri. They honeymooned in the Smokey Mountains on their way to Boston where they settled and raised their three daughters. In 1945 he became an Assistant Professor in Pediatric Surgery at Harvard University in Boston where he was a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital and worked with Dr. Robert Gross. In 1949 Orvar became the fir

American pediatric surgeon (1909–2012)

Orvar Swenson (7 February 1909 – 13 April 2012) was a Swedish-born American pediatric surgeon. He discovered the cause of Hirschsprung's disease and in 1948, with Alexander Bill, performed the first pull-through operation in a child with megacolon, which then became a treatment for the disease.

Initially a resident in pathology, he soon became an assistant professor of pediatric surgery at Harvard and later moved to Boston's Floating Hospital for Children as surgeon-in-chief, where he was the first pediatric surgeon on the staff at the hospital and where he began his research in Hirschsprung's disease. Subsequently, he became surgeon-in-chief of Children's Memorial Hospital, where he remained until his retirement in 1973.

In 1973, Swenson was elected president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. He authored Swenson's Pediatric Surgery, which ran into five editions and he was the recipient of a number of awards including the E. Mead Johnson Award, the William E. Ladd Medal and the Denis Browne Gold Medal.

Early life

Swenson was born in Helsingborg, Sweden, in 1909. His parents, Amanda and Carl Albert Swenson, were missionaries for the Community of Christ and relocated their family to Independence, Missouri, in 1917. Both parents died when Orvar was a teenager, and he and his brother Alvin lived in a boarding house where they started a business, Woodcraft, which sold fire-by-friction sets, bows and arrows, and field hockey sticks. Orvar graduated from William Chrisman High School in 1929 and William Jewell College in 1933. The same year, Orvar and Alvin were admitted to Harvard Medical School, where they successfully petitioned the dean to be placed in the same class so that they could share textbooks in order to save money. They graduated from Harvard in 1937.

Career

Swenson began his medic