Dr. Jeane Hester: the matriarch of helping to advance therapeutic and donor apheresis medicine and the development of innovative centrifugal apheresis devices.

Abstract

A couple summers ago, Jeane and I agreed to meet for lunch, to discuss some therapeutic apheresis (TA) topics, at a Starbucks close to her home in Houston. She had retired, as a Professor of Medicine, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center years earlier, yet was engaged as a “part time” consultant for Terumo BCT. I use the words “part time” loosely, as there was nothing “part time” about Jeane’s devotion to apheresis, andmany othermedical topics. Even in “retirement”, Jeane spends hours, over and above her consulting assignments, researching topics in the MD Anderson medical library, and attending conferences. She regularly takes the time to share some of the relevant information with me, and others via email, and during the times we can meet in person. As I entered the parking lot of the Starbucks, a typical Houston summertime thunderstorm erupted. I did not have an umbrella, or raincoat, so, I decided to sit in the car, and wait out themicroburst. Then, I saw Jeane, a couple car rows over, walking through the intense wind and rain, and into the store. Even though she could not have seen me, and I could have been a bit late due to the conditions, I immediately got out of the car, and dashed through the wind, rain, and standing water up to the top of my shoes, and into the store. Such is themotivation, and lead by example, that Jeane has always inspired in me to be the best possible student and practitioner of therapeutic and donor apheresis, and cell therapy, for the 32 years that I have known andworked with her. As luck would have it, I had the good fortune of being in the right place and time, to have been educated, mentored, encouraged, and inspired by some of the other pioneers and practitioners of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE). Physicians like Dau, Khatri, Kiprov, Robinson, Rock, Ward, as well as the original initiators of the COBE Laboratories, * Tel.: +1 513-604-3057 E-mail address: Dawson.Smith@terumobct.com.