Dr. Norman M. Rich, The International Military Surgeon: His French Connection

Abstract

In 1967, 1 was spending (and enjoying) a year at Duke University doing research with Dr. D. Silver, under the tutelage of Dr. D. Sabiston. Time was passing by very quickly. Before going back to Paris I wanted to visit Walter Reed General Hospital, which was for me the nec plus ultra of American military medicine. A colleague of Dr. Silver gave me the telephone number of a surgeon he met in Vietnam who was now the Chief of the Vascular Surgery Department at Walter Reed. His name was Norman Rich. I called him, we made an appointment, and I flew to Washington. That visit was the beginning of a true and long friendship which had an enormous influence, not only on my career, but also on my family life when I moved, with my wife, to the United States.