Myocardial Abscess With Perforation of the Heart Following Staphylococcal Pyemia

Abstract

J. Robert Gladden (Fig 1) was born in Charlottesville, NC, and raised in East St. Louis. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Long Island University where he played on the basketball team. He then attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville from which he graduated with honors in 1938. After interning at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, DC, he became the first orthopaedic resident in a new orthopaedic program at that hospital directed by Dr. Julius Neviaser. After the completion of his training, Dr. Gladden joined the orthopaedic staff of the College of Medicine of Howard University.1 In 1950 he succeeded Dr. Neviaser as chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery. In this capacity he established the orthopaedic residency program at the District of Columbia General Hospital. In January 1945 The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery granted its certificate to Dr. Gladden, the first African American to be certified by the Board. In 1951 he became the first African American member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He also became a member of the American College of Surgeons. In addition to his medical activities, Dr. Gladden was active in the affairs of his community, serving on numerous boards and committees. The following paper relates in some detail the course of a staphylococcal infection initiated by a puncture wound about the knee. It should remind us of the problems that can occur in cases of infection with antibiotic resistant organisms.