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Tributes are paid to doctor who helped save thousands of lives

Tributes are paid to doctor who helped save thousands of lives

TRIBUTES have been paid to Dr. Mary Ellen Avery, who has passed away aged 84, and whose work helped save the lives of thousands of premature babies. 

In the late 1950s Dr. Avey had started to examine the primary cause of death among premature babies — the inability to breathe.

Building on the work of others, she identified the presence of proteins and fat in the lungs which came to be known as surfactant. 

Dr. Avery discovered that it was the absence of this surfactant that caused infant deaths. 

Following her discovery, a pediatrician in Japan, Dr. Tetsuro Fujiwara, then developed a surfactant replacement.

Before Dr. Avery’s breakthrough an average of 15,000 babies died from respiratory distress syndrome each year, but by 2002, fewer that 1,000 lives were being lost.

Many in the medical profession credit Dr. Avery with helping to save as many as 800,000 lives.

In 1991 President George Bush awarded the National Medal of Science to Dr. Avery.

 

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