Morris Wessel

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Morris A. Wessel (born November 1, 1917 in Providence , Rhode Island , † August 20, 2016 in New Haven , Connecticut ) was an American pediatrician. In 1954 he first formulated the rule of three for the diagnosis of excessive crying in infancy ("three-month colic"), which was later named after him as the "Wessel Criteria". He was a professor of clinical pediatrics at Yale University , with particular research on early childhood development and issues of coping with grief over the death of loved ones in children and adolescents. In New Haven , he worked as a pediatrician for more than 50 years.

life and work

Morris Wessel completed his undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1939 with a BA in Arts & Science (a kind of Studium Generale). He then attended the Medical School of Yale University , which he graduated with an MD in 1943 . Wessel served as a military doctor in the Medical Corps of the United States Army until 1947 , where he achieved the rank of captain . Among other things, he dealt with venereal diseases in soldiers of the American Army of Occupation in Japan.

In 1947 he began his pediatric specialist training with a Pediatric Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic . In 1951 he opened a group practice for pediatric medicine in New Haven together with Robert G. LaCamera. In the following years he dealt with rooming-in , colic in newborns and the risk of lead poisoning in children and adolescents. He researched and published in particular on grief and trauma management in children and adolescents. From 1969–1974 he helped found Connecticut Hospice in Branford, CT, the first purpose-built hospice facility in the United States.

In 1993, Wessel left his pediatric practice after 42 years, and LaCamera also retired three years later. In 1997, Wessel received the C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics. He continued to work at the Clifford Beers Clinic for Children and Families, one of the oldest outpatient clinics for behavioral patients in the United States , even after he left his private practice . In 2007, Wessel retired after 35 years of work at the Clifford Beers Clinic. The newly built National Trauma Center was named "Morris Wessel Child and Family Trauma Center of the Clifford Beers Clinic" by the clinic in his honor.

Morris Wessel is married to Irmgard (Irm) Wessel, whom he met during his time at the Mayo Clinic. Irmgard Wessel (née Rosenzweig) comes from Kassel and is a survivor of the Holocaust who was able to leave Germany in March 1939 on a Kindertransport to England, from where she emigrated to the USA with her parents. Irmgard Wessel worked for many years as a social worker and teacher in New Haven CT. The two have a daughter and three sons, one of whom is Pulitzer Prize winner David Wessel.

Publications (selection)

  • MA Wessel, JC Cobb, EB Jackson, GS Harris Jr, AC Detwiler: Paroxysmal fussing in infancy, sometimes called colic. In: Pediatrics. Vol. 14, No. 5, Nov 1954. PMID 13214956 .
  • Morris Wessel: Parents book for raising a healthy child . Ballantine Books, New York 1987, ISBN 0-345-31430-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ American Men of Medicine. Volume 3, Institute for Research in Biography, 1961, p. 738.
  2. ^ Obituary In: New Haven Independent. 20th August 2016.
  3. ↑ Oliver E. Byrd (Ed.): Health Instruction Yearbook . Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1948, pp. 66-67.
  4. ↑ Inge B. Corless, Barbara B. Germino, Mary Pittman (Eds.): Dying, Death, and Bereavement . Springer Publishing, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8261-2656-1 , pp. 303-304.
  5. ↑ The Clifford Beers Clinic was founded in 1913 by Clifford Whittingham Beers after he became famous for a book about his depression, suicide attempts and hospital stays. ( A mind that found itself . New York 1908.) Clifford W. Beers - His Legacy. ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on the Clifford Beers Clinic website. (Retrieved June 7, 2009.)
  6. ↑ Alumni Notes - 1940s ( Memento from June 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Yale Medicine. Spring 2007, p. 44.
  7. ↑ Melinda Tuhus: Irm Wessel Remembers . In: New Haven Independent. April 15, 2007. (Retrieved June 8, 2009.)
  8. ^ Howard Blas: "Dr. Ruth" recalls Kindertransport experience at Yale's Slifka Center on April 29, 2009. (Retrieved June 8, 2009).
  9. ↑ Barbara Berger, Ann Segall: Irmgard Wessel: The Making of a Clinical Social Worker. In: Clinical Social Work Journal. Vol. 31, No. 1, March 2003. doi: 10.1023 / A: 1021418702854
  10. ↑ Pulitzer Prize-winning economics editor to speak at Eureka College commencement. ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Eureka College Campus News. Spring 2009. (Accessed June 8, 2009.)
personal data
SURNAME Wessel, Morris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wessel, Morris A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pediatrician
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Providence , Rhode Island
DATE OF DEATH 20th August 2016
Place of death New Haven , Connecticut