Edith Potter

Edith Louise Potter (born September 26, 1901 in Clinton , Iowa , † March 22, 1993 during a cruise in the Caribbean ) was an American doctor and long-time professor at the University of Chicago , who specialized in pediatric pathology . She coined the term the Potter sequence and the four Potter types used to classify cystic kidneys .

Career

Edith Potter was born in 1901 as the only daughter of William Harvey Potter, who worked as a railway engineer, and Edna Rugg. In early childhood, the family moved via Wisconsin to Minnesota , where Potter received her education. There she also attended the University of Minnesota , where she completed her medical degree in 1926 (according to other sources as early as 1925) with an MD . After graduating, she worked as an assistant doctor at the Minneapolis Hospital and completed a study trip to Vienna , from which she returned to Minnesota in 1927. The American then practiced as a doctor for five years and obtained a Master of Science degree in 1932 . She then deepened her studies in pathology and received her Ph.D. in 1934. at the University of Minnesota.

In the same year Edith Potter moved to Chicago to take up a position as a lecturer at the newly opened Chicago Lying-in Hospital , the gynecological clinic of the University of Chicago . She taught and researched at the university, from 1947 as an extraordinary professor and from 1956 as a regular professor of pathology until she retired in 1967 . She spent her twilight years in Fort Myers , Florida , before she died on March 22, 1993 while cruising the Caribbean .

Scientific achievement

Edith Potter's scientific focus was significantly influenced by Herman Bundeson, then head of the health department in Chicago. This was dedicated to reducing child mortality in the city, so that from now on hardly any newborn babies were allowed to be buried without an autopsy . As a result, Potter performed over 10,000 such autopsies in her 33-year career in Chicago and thus acquired extensive expertise in the field of pediatric pathology. In 1953 she published the standard work Pathology of the fetus and newborn for the first time , which was called Potter's Pathology of the Fetus, Infant and Child in later editions and is still published today (last time in 2007). Another major research area of ​​Potter was hemolysis in the case of rhesus incompatibility .

A special discovery was made by Potter when they abnormalities in 20 autopsied newborns with bilateral kidney - agenesis noted (both sides lack the kidneys). All children also had pulmonary hypoplasia and malformations of the extremities and face, the latter being particularly prominent and henceforth referred to as Potter faces : micro-genius , hypertelorism , epicanthus medialis and a lack of cartilage substance of the auricle . The entire syndrome complex has been called Potter syndrome or renal dysplasia , although it was only later found that all of the properties are due to decreased production of amniotic fluid . As a result, one speaks today of the Potter sequence or the oligohydramnios sequence .

In addition, she established a classification of cyst kidneys , which is still used today as the four Potter types .

The American published a total of six books and 140 scientific articles.

Honors

Edith Potter received honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania , the University of South Florida , where an annual Edith Potter lecture has been held since 1988, and the Universidade de São Paulo , where she was a visiting professor in 1949. Her achievements have been recognized by the American Gynecological Society , the National Association for Retarded Children (now Arc of the United States ) and the University of Minnesota , among others . She was also an honorary member of the Society for Pediatric Pathology and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 1983.

Personal

Edith Potter married Alvin Meyer on June 17, 1944 (according to other sources already in 1943), who brought a daughter into the marriage. Meyer died in 1976, as a result of which she married Frank Deats, a friend of the family, but was widowed again in 1983.

literature

• Marilyn Ogilvie , Joy Harvey: The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science . tape 2 (L-Z). Routledge , New York 2014, ISBN 0-415-92040-X , pp. 1045-1046 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} P. M. Dunn: Dr Edith Potter (1901-1993) of Chicago: pioneer in perinatal pathology. In: Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition. Volume 92, Number 5, September 2007, pp. 419-420, ISSN  1359-2998 . doi : 10.1136 / fnn.2005.091397 . PMC 2675375 (free full text).