Alton Ochsner
| Alton Ochsner, Sr., M.D. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 4, 1896 Kimball, South Dakota |
| Died | September 24, 1981 (aged 85) New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Education |
Washington University in St. Louis University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Known for | Founder of Ochsner Clinic |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Surgeon; medical researcher |
| Institutions | Tulane University, Touro Infirmary, Ochsner Clinic |
| Research | Surgery |
Alton Ochsner, Sr. (May 4, 1896 – September 24, 1981), was a surgeon and medical researcher who worked at Tulane University and other New Orleans hospitals before he established his own world-renowned The Ochsner Clinic, now known as Ochsner Foundation Hospital. Among its many services are heart transplants.
Reared in Kimball, South Dakota, Ochsner was an unlikely hero of Southern medicine. He was recruited to Tulane from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1927, he succeeded the legendary Rudolph Matas as professor and chairman of the Tulane Department of Surgery. Although Tulane did not have its own hospital at the time, Ochsner succeeded in organizing one of America's premier surgical teaching programs at New Orleans Charity Hospital, an institution that provided invaluable clinical opportunities to Ochsner and his students. Ochsner's refusal to hire a friend of Louisiana governor Huey Long formed part of the background for Long's establishing another medical school, now the LSU Health Sciences Center, across the street from the Tulane University School of Medicine.
As a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis, young Ochsner was summoned to observe lung cancer surgery—something, he was told, that he might never see again. He did not witness another case for seventeen years. Then he observed eight in six months all being smokers who had picked up the habit in World War I.
...
Wikipedia