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Wednesday, April 16, 2003Dr. Guyton helped clarify the workings of the cardiovascular system through his research into the causes of high blood pressure. In the 1950's, he overturned the conventional wisdom that the heart controlled the amount of blood pumped, demonstrating that cardiac output is instead determined by body tissues' need for oxygen. In 1966, he used a computer model to establish that the kidneys are the important long-term controllers of blood pressure and that other systems regulate pressure only over the short term. I don’t exaggerate when I say that the only thing I remember from that text book is the graphic repeated again and again of cardiac output in relation to just about every physiological parameter you can think of. If I close my eyes I can see the graphs just as clearly as if the book were in front of me. Dr. Guyton was also the father of ten physicians. I always wonder about families in which all the kids go into the same profession. What do you suppose it is that motivates them? I’ve got to think it’s parental pressure, especially when as many as ten kids do it. Surely, those ten kids are different enough to have separate interests and goals. There are a lot of families like this in medicine (and law, too). When interviewed in newspapers they always deny parental pressure, but I always wonder if they’re afraid of offending a very strong parent. The obituary backs this up: When asked why all of the Guyton children had decided to go into medicine, David, the eldest, said, "Daddy never lectured us about medicine: He stimulated our interest." Thomas, the ninth child, said, "He instilled the work ethic in all of us, but I think I learned most from his disability." [ed. note - The obituary never clarifies what that disability was - workaholic, perhaps?] There were, of course, other motivating factors. In a 1993 article in Harvard Magazine celebrating his father's 50th reunion and the graduation of his youngest sibling from medical school, Douglas, the seventh child, admitted: "The pressure on me was intense. I can only imagine what it must have been like for the three youngest." Which brings me to one of my favorite medical family stories. When Waldo Nelson, the author of the bible of pediatrics , Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics, died a few years ago, the New York Times obituary noted that when he was putting together the the first edition, he made it a family affair. His wife and kids were given the job of putting the index together. One of his teenage daughters slipped this entry in: It made it past both her father and the proof readers and into print. Kids! posted by Sydney on 4/16/2003 07:32:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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