Friday, April 30
Tour Maryland's Hospital: 25 Years Since Privatization
9:00–9:45 am
Davidge Hall
You rotated through it while in school. You may have received some training
here. But if you haven’t been through the hospital in recent years, you’ll
have to see the transformation to believe it! This 45-minute walking tour
will take you through the Gudelsky and Weinberg Buildings and into the
Maryland Advanced Simulation, Training, Research, and Innovation (MASTRI)
Center. Learn about the hospital’s growth from a state-controlled
entity in 1984 to the thriving, nine-hospital private system it is today.
School of Medicine Update
by Dr. E. Albert Reece, Dean
10:00–11:00 am
Davidge Hall
This annual medical school address for alumni is presented by our dean,
E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA. His one-hour presentation summarizes
recent accomplishments at the school and offers insight into future developments.
Our education, research, and patient care initiatives will be discussed,
and the dean will have time to field your questions at the conclusion
of his 45-minute presentation.
135th Medical Alumni Recognition Luncheon
and Business Meeting
11:15 am–1:15 pm
Southern Management Corporation Campus Center
Lombard & Greene Streets
$38, reservations required
Please note: The cost for the 135th Recognition Luncheon is $38 per person, not $40 as listed on the printed form. Thank you
Complimentary to the Classes of 1935, 1940,
1950 & 1960
Attire: Business casual
Elijah Saunders, ’60, Selvin Passen, ’60, and the other attending members
of the Golden Anniversary class of 1960 are the guests of honor during our
annual awards luncheon & business meeting at the new Campus Center. This
event is complimentary to members of the classes of 1935, 1940, 1950 &
1960 and their guests.
Saunders will receive the Honor Award & Gold Key. Presented since
1948, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to medicine and distinguished
service to mankind. Saunders, among the first African-American
graduates of the medical school, became Baltimore’s first black cardiologist
upon completion of training in 1965. After nearly 20 years in private practice,
he joined the faculty at Maryland in 1984 as a professor of medicine
and developed one of the country’s premier hypertension programs which he
headed. He is credited with developing creative programs in the Baltimore
community to raise the awareness of the dangers of high blood pressure.
This crusade started in Baltimore churches where he encouraged blood pressure
screenings, and later this program, sponsored by CareFirst BlueCross
BlueShield, trained barbers and beauticians to take customers’
blood pressure. In recognition of his contributions at Maryland,
a professorship was established in his honor.
Passen has been named recipient of the Distinguished Service
Award, presented since 1986 for outstanding contributions
to the MAA and school. The Baltimore native has been organizing
reunions and fund raising from his class since graduation
in 1960. Passen joined the alumni board in 1986 and was
elected president in 1998. He was one of the early proponents
of establishing an alumni association endowment fund which
was accomplished in 1991, due in large part to his encouragement
and financial support. The fund was named in his honor
in 1997. Passen continues to serve on the budget & finance
committee as well as the Davidge Hall Restoration Committee.
A pathologist, he was founder of Maryland Medical Laboratories,
Inc., in 1968—one of the largest clinical testing laboratories
in the region. It was sold to Corning in 1994.
Also on the agenda is recognition of the members of the
class of 1960, who celebrate their 50th anniversary. And the
MAA will be electing officers and three directors during this
luncheon, thus completing the annual business meeting of
the MAA. On the ballot for election as president is Otha
Myles, ’98.
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The 17th Historical Clinicopathological Conference
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A Medical Labyrinth
1:30-3:00pm Davidge Hall
Conference: Free attendance,
but reservations required
Attire: business casual
Reception to follow
Historical figures, whose deaths have not been
satisfactorily explained, are patients for our annual conference. Past conferences have examined the deaths of Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander the Great, Mozart
and others. The following is an abbreviated case history
of this year’s patient:
The patient 
was “victor in 100 battles and
founder of three republics in the continent
of America.” He died at age 47 of a mysterious
illness, the nature and treatment
of which have been a source of controversy
for nearly two centuries.
He was born on July 24, 1783 in
Caracas to sixth generation, raciallypure,
Spanish-Americans. Both
parents reputedly died of tuberculosis—
the father at age 56, when the
patient was two years old and the
mother at age 33, when he was nine.
However, the father was a notorious
womanizer, and some have speculated
that paralytic syphilis was the actual
cause of his death, and that congenital
syphilis was responsible for the death of a
daughter (the patient’s sister) shortly after
birth. There were three other siblings, an older
brother and two older sisters. None is known to
have developed syphilis or tuberculosis. His sisters
died at ages 65 and 68 of unknown cause, and his
brother was lost at sea at age 30.
The patient ate frugally and avoided spirits and
tobacco. He enjoyed excellent health throughout
most of his life, in spite of the privations and stresses
of commanding an army at war for 20 years in
some of South America’s most inhospitable terrain.
He married at age 18, only to lose his young bride
eight months later to “malignant fever.” He never
remarried but had numerous subsequent affairs with
mistresses and prostitutes; none of which is known
to have produced offspring.
In his prime, the patient was slightly below
medium height (5’6”), slim and graceful. His temperament
was irritable, his movements restless and his demeanor impatient and superior. Whereas his complexion had been very
light as a youth, by his late thirties, it had become dark and rough. He had a
large head, angular face, pointed chin and prominent cheekbones. Although
his eyesight was described as “good” (and his sense of hearing exceptional),
he required reading glasses by his late thirties. According to one report: “His
genital organs [were] small, the testes hard and the cords short.”
Prior to the patient’s final illness, he had several other sicknesses of note.
When he was 29 and campaigning in the Magdalena River basin, he had a
febrile illness and furunculosis of unknown etiology from which he recovered.
During the ensuing decade, he had repeated bouts of fever. During at
least some of these, he at first “looked flushed and then pale and shivering,
and then lost consciousness.” These were treated in some instances with quinine
and in others with arsenic. The latter, on at least one occasion, seems to
have induced a severe attack of “dysentery.” Although he also suffered with
recurrent “colic,” “rheumatism” and chronic hemorrhoids, he was reasonably
fit until age 40, when he developed a high fever and collapsed. For seven
days he hovered near death in a small village north of Lima, and for two
months was so weak and emaciated he was hardly recognizable. Nevertheless,
within four months, he had recovered sufficiently to lead his army to
Pasco over some of the most mountainous country in the world in what was
described later in the London Times as “a mightier feat than Hannibal’s passage
of the Alps.”
Exactly when the patient’s final illness began is uncertain. Although some
believe the first symptoms of the pulmonary disorder that carried him off
appeared at age 35, others claim that except for the sicknesses described
above, he was physically fit until age 45 when his health began to crumble.
According to the patient’s letters, of which a great many have been preserved,
shortly before he turned 46, he was tormented by persistent headaches
and “bilious” attacks that left him weak and exhausted. Within six
months, his appearance was cadaveric, and his voice barely audible. Within
a year, his associates marveled that, given his extreme wasting, he was still
alive.
During the fortnight before the patient died, he was cared for by a French
physician, who had studied medicine at La Charitéé in Paris. According to
him, when first seen, the patient was apathetic, emaciated and so dyspneic
and weak he was unable to walk. His countenance was yellow. He was
hoarse and coughed constantly, producing copious amounts of green sputum.
He also hiccoughed a great deal. Interestingly, his sense of smell was unusually
keen. Whether it had always been so or had increased in acuity during
his illness is uncertain.
Over the ensuing 16 days, the patient continued to cough constantly and
was intermittently febrile, with hot head and cold extremities. His pulse was
persistently thready. Initially he was brighter during the day than at night,
but slept little and gradually drifted into delirium. There were also episodes
of indigestion and vomiting, sternal pain and then both right and left flank
pain, sore tongue (which was also dry, rough and colored along its edges)
and urinary incontinence.
Throughout this phase of the illness, the patient was treated with a
panoply of drugs, potions, poultices and maneuvers. These included: pectoral
elixirs, narcotics, expectorants, quinine, turpentine poultices, blistering
plasters (derived from Cantharides beetles), anodyne ointments, gum Arabic,
antispasmodics, cold compresses, leg rubs, purgatives, enemas, mustard plasters,
linseed water and Gondret’s pomade (a concoction of beef marrow and
ammonia).
When his end was near, the patient’s breathing became a death rattle, his
visage a facies Hippocraticus, and what little urine he produced was bloody.
When he died in the early morning of December 17, 1830, he weighed barely
50 pounds. His physician, who had trained in anatomico-pathological xamination
under Laennec and Dupuytren, performed an autopsy later that day.
He diagnosed “tuberculous consumption” based on the following findings:
Appearance of the Body
Cadaver in state of two thirds of decay; universal discoloration; swelling in
the sacral region; musculature very little discolored––normal consistency.
Head
The arachnoid vessels in the posterior half [were] slightly injected; the
irregularities and convolutions of the cerebrum [were] covered by a
brownish material with the consistency and transparency of gelatine;
[there was] a little semi-red serous material beneath the dura mater; the
rest of the cerebrum and cerebellum did not demonstrate any pathological
abnormality.
Chest
Posteriorly and superiorly on both sides the pleurae were adherent as the
result of semi-membranous material; there was hardening of the superior
two thirds of each lung. The right, which was almost completely disorganized,
looked like a fountain [sic] the colour of wine dregs studded
with tubercles of different sizes—not very soft. The left lung although less
disorganized showed the same tuberculous affection. Dividing this with
a scalpel I found an irregular, angular, calcareous concretion about the
size of a hazelnut. On opening the rest of the lungs with the instrument, I
spilled some brown serous material which as a result of the pressure was
rather frothy. The heart did not demonstrate anything particular although
it was bathed in a liquid of a light green colour which was contained
within the pericardium.
Abdomen
The stomach [was] dilated by a yellowish fluid with which its walls
were heavily impregnated but nonetheless it did not show any lesion
The 17th Historical
nor inflammation. The intestines [were] attenuated and showed slight
evidence of tympanites. The bladder [was] completely empty; it was collapsed
and lying low in the pelvis; it did not exhibit any pathological
signs. The liver [was] of a considerable size and was a little excoriated on
its convex surface. The gall bladder [was] much extended. The mesenteric
glands [were] obstructed. The spleen and kidneys were healthy. In general
the visceral organs did not suffer from any serious lesions.
2010 Guest Participants
Paul G. Auwaerter, MD, MBA, FACP, is clinical
director in the division of infectious diseases, department
of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine where he also serves as associate
professor of medicine, chief medical officer for its
Point of Care Information Technology Center, and
managing editor for the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic
Guide. His special interests include Lyme disease,
diagnostic dilemmas, and fevers of unknown origin.
He is widely published. Auwaerter received his
medical degree from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, Columbia University, in 1988. He received residency training in
internal medicine followed by four years of fellowship training in infectious
diseases, both at the Johns Hopkins University, where he also received an
MBA in 2003.
John Dove, MBBS, LRCP, FRCS, MSc., is an orthopaedic
spinal surgeon. Upon retirement in 2002,
he began advancing his study of foreign languages
and literature, and four years later he received an
MSc., from the University of Edinburgh for his
thesis exploring the relationship between Gabriel
García Márquez’s novel The General in his Labyrinth
and Simón Bolívar. Since then his main area
of research has focused on the health, illness, and
death of Simón Bolívar. Dove is a 1968 graduate of
St. Thomas Medical School in London. He served as
consultant in orthopaedic spine surgery to the North Staffordshire Hospital
Trust and The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry
from 1980 until retirement. Dove lives in the Highlands of Scotland
where he has added Gaelic to his portfolio of languages. He enjoys mountaineering,
chess, wine, and music.
School of Medicine Tour
3:30–4:30 pm
For many of our graduates celebrating reunion this weekend,
attending medical school meant showing up with a
microscope and sitting through two years of endless lectures
in Davidge Hall. For today’s students, medical education
begins in Taylor Hall of the Bressler Building with a laptop
computer. And they spend less than two hours a day listening
to lectures. Witness the change. The tour begins and ends at
Davidge Hall.
The Happening at the Harbor
6:30–9:30 pm
Dinner & Music, Baltimore Museum of Industry
1415 Key Highway–Inner Harbor South
$65 per person, reservations required
Parking: on-site
Attire: casual
The Baltimore Museum of Industry offers a unique backdrop
for our all-comers gathering. In addition to viewing its collections,
the museum offers a spectacular view of Baltimore’s
picturesque inner harbor. We’ll have live music—a Jazz quartet.
Families and friends are not only welcome but encouraged
to attend. Our menu includes sushi, crab cakes, roast beef
brisket, honey roasted chicken, and baked potato bar..
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