Jay J. Jacoby, Pied Piper of Anesthesiology

According to German folk legend, the Pied Piper played a magical melody to lure rats, then children, from the town of Hamelin (right). The gentle Jay J. “J.J.” Jacoby, M.D., Ph.D. (1917 to 2003,left), attracted so many medical students into anesthesiology that he was affectionally called the “Pied Piper” of the nascent specialty. Shortly after graduation from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, the attack on Pearl Harbor had pressed J.J. into military service. His limited experience anesthetizing patients as an obstetrics intern identified him as an “anesthetist,” an d during World War II, J.J. honed resuscitation and intubation skills in combat zones (left,sitting on an unexploded bomb). His endotracheal (ET)-tube wizardry not only with difficult airways but also with casks of wine bewitched his fellow officers. By stringing together ET tubes and inserting the end into a barrel, soldiers who bounced along dirt roads could siphon off the precious cargo without spilling it on their uniforms. The war would spark for J.J. and many other novice anesthetists a lifelong passion, and when he returned home, he switched into an anesthesiology residency. At age 29, the whimsical pioneer was recruited to Ohio State University as Professor of Anesthesia. During an enchanting career that involved almost 40 years as a department chair at Ohio State, Marquette University, and Jefferson Medical College, J.J. Jacoby inspired hundreds to follow in his footsteps. (Bull A...
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research