User:Mwinog2777/Dudrick

Stanley J. Dudrick (April 9, 1935-January 18, 2020) was a surgeon who pioneered the use of total parenteral nutrition (TPN).

Early life and education
Dudrick was born in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, the grandson of Polish immigrants. His father was a coal miner and his mother a factory worker. At age seven he decided to become a doctor after seeing the care his mother received during a serious illness. He graduated Franklin and Marshall College in 1957, and received his medical degree for the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Career
As a surgical resident at the University of Pennsylvania, Dudrick realized that post-surgical malnutrition was a poorly recognized cause of death in patients who could not eat or absorb nutrients. In 1964, working with his mentor, Dr. Jonathon Rhoades, and after many hours in the lab, he announced that he had kept six beagles alive for 287 days with TPN, by-passing their digestive systems. After showing the feasibility in lab animals, in 1967 he applied the technique to sick infants and then adults. Nutrition including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals were given directly into the circulatory system. In the subsequent decades Dudrick continued making significant contributions to the field. His contribution to field of medicine has been compared to Joseph Lister and Alexander Fleming, among others. "The number of lives of children that have been saved is estimated at over 10 million, and the benefit to adults with a range of conditions is no less substantial. TPN is a lifesaving mainstay of therapy for a great proportion of the most critically ill patients in hospitals worldwide and amounts to one of the most significant developments in the history of surgery." He was the founding chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas at Houston; he followed this up becoming chairman of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, and then with professorships at Yale and Geisinger medical schools. He received over 100 national and international awards, including the American Surgical Association’s first Flance/Karl Award in 1997 for his seminal and lifetime scientific contributions to surgery; and the American College of Surgeons Jacobsen Innovation Award in 2005.

Personal
In medical school he married Theresa Keen, and had six children.