Edward Delos Churchill

Edward Churchill was born on 25 December 1895 in Chenoa, Illinois. He attended Northwestern University, graduating B.S. in 1916 and M.A. in 1917. He then attended Harvard Medical School, graduating M.D. cum laude in 1920. He undertook his internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and continued there as an associate surgeon; being named to that position in 1924.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/04/archives/edward-churchill-found-dead-boston-surgeon-and-professor.html|title=Edward Churchill Found Dead; Boston Surgeon and Professor|work=The New York Times|date=September 4, 1972|page= 18}}

He studied in Europe on a Moseley Traveling Fellowship in 1926 and 1927, spending time in Copenhagen, Munich and Berlin.Art Baue. [http://www2.massgeneral.org/surgery/pdf/surgery_2002spring.pdf Edward Delos Churchill. Pioneer, Educator; Leader in Surgery.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041216011525/http://www.massgeneral.org/surgery/pdf/surgery_2002spring.pdf |date=2004-12-16 }} The Massachusetts General Hospital Surgical Society Newsletter, vol 3, issue 1. Spring 2002.

He returned to Massachusetts General in 1927, and moved to Boston City Hospital in 1928 to help found a full-time surgical unit there.{{cite journal |author=Moore FD |title=Edward Delos Churchill: 1895-1972 |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=177 |issue=4 |pages=507–8 |date=April 1973 |pmid=4570956 |pmc=1355664 }} In 1928 he performed the first pericardiectomy in the United States in a collaboration with Dr. Paul D. White, for the treatment of constrictive pericarditis,Raymond Hurt, J.E. Barry. The history of cardiothoracic surgery from early times, page 464-5. Informa Health Care, 1996. {{ISBN|978-1-85070-681-6}}. and developed this treatment subsequently.{{cite journal |author=Churchill ED |title=Pericardial Resection in Chronic Constrictive Pericarditis |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=104 |issue=4 |pages=516–29 |date=October 1936 |pmid=17856846 |pmc=1390700 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-193610440-00004}} In 1929 he and Oliver Cope published research which described the Churchill-Cope reflex.{{cite journal | last1 = Churchill | first1 = ED | last2 = Cope | first2 = O | year = 1929 | title = The rapid shallow breathing resulting from pulmonary congestion and edema | url = http://jem.rupress.org/cgi/reprint/49/4/531.pdf | journal = J Exp Med | volume = 49 | issue = 4| pages = 531–537 | doi=10.1084/jem.49.4.531| pmc = 2131565 | pmid=19869562}} During that time Churchill also researched pulmonary embolism, showing that multiple small emboli cause pulmonary hypertension, while a single massive embolism causes death by a different mechanism.{{cite journal |vauthors=Gibbon JH, Hopkinson M, Churchill ED |title=Changes in the Circulation Produced by Gradual Occlusion of the Pulmonary Artery |journal=J. Clin. Invest. |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=543–53 |date=May 1932 |pmid=16694060 |pmc=435835 |doi=10.1172/JCI100433 }}{{cite journal |vauthors=Gibbon JH, Churchill ED |title=The Physiology of Massive Pulmonary Embolism |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=104 |issue=5 |pages=811–22 |date=November 1936 |pmid=17856871 |pmc=1390251 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-193611000-00002}}

Churchill returned to Massachusetts General in 1931, becoming the John Homans Professor of surgery and Chief of the West Surgical Service at Massachusetts General. He developed parathyroid surgery in the treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism, performing the first mediastinal parathyroidectomy with Oliver Cope on patient Captain Charles Martell in 1932.Daniel Oetli, Robert Udelsman. Surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands, page 9. Springer, 2007. {{ISBN|978-3-540-29165-7}}. Churchill and Cope continued to improve the success rate of parathyroid surgery in subsequent years.{{cite journal |vauthors=Churchill ED, Cope O |title=The Surgical Treatment of Hyperparathyroidism |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=104 |issue=1 |pages=9–35 |date=July 1936 |pmid=17856809 |pmc=1390328 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-193607000-00002 }} He also developed the use of lobectomy in the treatment of bronchiectasis, pulmonary tuberculosis and lung cancer.{{cite journal |author=COPE O |title=Foreword |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=158 |issue= 5|pages=731–9 |date=November 1963 |pmid=14074062 |pmc=1408561 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-196311000-00001}}

During the Second World War Churchill became Theatre Consultant for surgery in the Mediterranean. He developed the use of delayed primary closure and early debridement of contaminated wounds. He established regional blood banks to increase the use of blood transfusion, and improved the process of air evacuation of wounded soldiers.

In 1946 he was President of the American Surgical Association, and continued as Professor of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1948 the surgical services at Massachusetts General were combined, and Churchill became Chief of the General Surgical Services. He retired in 1962, and fostered an interest in the history of wound management.{{cite journal |author=CHURCHILL ED |title=Healing by First Intention and with Suppuration: Studies in the History of Wound Healing |journal=J Hist Med Allied Sci |volume=19 |issue= 3|pages=193–214 |date=July 1964 |pmid=14193222 |doi= 10.1093/jhmas/xix.3.193}} He died on 28 August 1972 of a myocardial infarction while walking on his farm in Vermont.

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• [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HMS.Count:med00078 The Edward Delos Churchill papers] can be found at The Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

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Category:American thoracic surgeons

Category:Northwestern University alumni

Category:Harvard Medical School alumni

Category:People from Chenoa, Illinois

Category:1895 births

Category:1972 deaths

Category:20th-century American surgeons

Category:Presidents of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery