Earle Barnes Mahoney 1909–1988

Abstract

Earle B. Mahoney was born in Penn Yan, N.Y., on July 3, 1909. He died in Rochester, N.Y., on March 11, 1988. Although most of his professional life was spent in upstate New York, he was internationally recognized as a teacher and pioneer in cardiovascular surgery. Dr. Mahoney graduated from Hobart College in 1930 and received his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1934. He completed his residency in surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital in 1939. In medical school he became interested in plasma proteins while working in the laboratory of Dr. George H. Whipple. He continued this research at the University of Cincinnati as a National Research Council Fellow in 1937 and 1938. His research led to some of the earliest studies on the use of intravenous plasma for clinical shock. He continued these studies as an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Rochester during the years 1942 to 1948. At the same time he served as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserves. During the 1950s he developed both a laboratory and clinical interest in cardiac and vascular surgery. His laboratory interests included studies on thromboembolism, arterial graft materials, and the use of hypothermia for open heart operations. He performed some of the earliest arterial reconstructions with homografts and also published one of the earlier series where hypothermia was used in successful open heart operations for atrial septal defects and pulmonary valvular stenosis. He particularly enjoyed pediatric cardiac surgical operations, and for his presidential address to the Society for Vascular Surgery in June 1963, he reviewed his experience in that area with his paper entitled “Congenital Abnormalities of the Aortic Arch.” Dr. Mahoney was a gifted teacher and provided a stimulus to many medical students and residents to pursue a career in surgery. His interest in teaching is best exemplified by his presidential address to the Society of University Surgeons in 1954 when he spoke on “The Intern and Assistant Resident in the Surgical Training Program.” He recognized the importance of providing excellent training programs and established a cardiothoracic surgical residency program at Strong Memorial Hospital in 1971. In 1974 he and his lovely wife, Mary, moved to Nantucket, where he continued to actively practice medicine and perform operations at its 50-bed hospital. He remained interested in learning and teaching. He frequently flew to Boston to attend rounds at hospitals. He continued to participate in the meetings of the many national societies of which he was a member. He was a frequently invited guest speaker. While at Nantucket he also continued to pursue his hobbies of bird-watching and golfing. When he retired from the practice of surgery in 1984, he returned to Rochester, where he could be closer to his long-time friends and his children, Richard, David, Sheila, and Mary. He lived as he taught and sought surgical relief of problems when appropriate. He died as a result of heart failure after a myocardial infarction, but until the end he remained a student, a gifted teacher, and always a gentleman.