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| Elliott Carr Cutler | |
| Born | July 30, 1888 Bangor, Maine |
|---|---|
| Died | August 16, 1947 (aged 59) Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Residence | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Surgeon |
| Institutions | Harvard Medical School |
| Alma mater | Harvard College Harvard Medical School |
| Academic advisors | Ludolf von Krehl |
| Known for | performing the world’s first successful heart valve surgery |
| Notable awards | Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit Order of the British Empire Croix de Guerre Order of the Bath Légion d'honneur |
Elliot Carr Cutler (July 30, 1888 – August 16, 1947) was an American surgeon and medical educator. He was Moseley Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Surgeon-in-Chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1932 to 1947.1
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Early life
Cutler was born on July 30, 1888 in Bangor, Maine. He was the son of George Chalmers Cutler and Mary Franklin Wilson. His father was a lumber merchant.2 He was named for his maternal grandmother, Mary Elliot Carr (d. 1869), who belonged to a prominent political and mercantile family in Bangor (see Francis Carr). The Carr-Wing House remains a local landmark.
Cutler studied at Harvard College and graduated with an AB degree in 1909. After completing his A.B., he studied at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and received his M.D. cum laude in 1913, graduating first in his class. He studied pathology with Frank Mallory at the Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) during his fourth year at HMS. He was subsequently awarded the John Harvard Fellowship. He was also elected permanent class president.1
After completing his graduation, he spent five months in Europe, mostly in London and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, where he studied pathology with Ludolf von Krehl.1
Career
After returning from Germany, he served as surgical intern at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston, Massachusetts. He joined the Harvard Unit of the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris, France in 1915. He declined the invitation by William S. Halsted to run the Hunterian Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in 1916. He studied immunity at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.2
The United States entered the World War I in 1917. This prompted Cutler to return to France as a captain in the Army Medical Corps assigned to the Harvard Unit, Base Hospital Number 5. He returned to Boston after the end of the war. He joined the Brigham Hospital as resident surgeon. He married Caroline Pollard Parker in the spring of 1919. They had five children.2
Cutler was an associate in the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and also directed Harvard surgical research laboratory from 1921-23. In 1923 he performed the world’s first successful heart valve surgery. The patient was a 12-year-old girl with rheumatic mitral stenosis who underwent mitral valve repair. This surgery was hailed as a milestone by the British Medical Journal. It proved to have a mortality rate of 90 percent and it was abandoned by Cutler in 1928. Surgical repair for mitral valve stenosis was not reattempted until 1945.23
Cutler left Harvard Medical School in 1924 to become professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and director of surgery at the Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, where he continued his laboratory work. In 1932 he succeeded Harvey Cushing as Moseley Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Surgeon-in-Chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He those two positions until his death in 1947.1
At the outbreak of the World War II, Governor of Massachusetts appointed Cutler as medical director of the state committee on public safety. He was again called into active service in the Army Medical Corps in 1942. He also served as chief surgical consultant during the war. Later he served as chief of the professional services division in the office of the surgeon general, European theater of operations. As chief surgical consultant, he played an important role in obtaining blood from the U.S. for use in treating wounded soldiers. He was appointed brigadier general in 1945.2
Cutler published papers extensively throughout his career about thyroidectomy, thoracotomy, cardiotomy, and mitral valvulotomy. He was also the co-author of the 1939 book The Atlas of Surgery with Dr. Robert M. Zollinger. The book remained a standard surgery textbook throughout the 20th century.1
Cutler was a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers from 1927 to 1932. He was President of the Associated Harvard Clubs from 1936 to 1937 and President of the Harvard Alumni Association from 1939 to 1940. Outside of Harvard, Cutler was a member or officer of several medical and scientific organizations, including the American Surgical Association (President, 1947), the American College of Surgeons (fellow), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Society for Clinical Surgery (President, 1941-46).1
Cutler was a member of the editorial boards including the American Heart Journal, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Surgery, the American Journal of Surgery, and the British Journal of Surgery. He was a founder of the American Board of Surgery and the Society for Consultants to the Surgeons General of the Armed Forces of the United States. He was also elected a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Rome, Italy and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Britain.1
Later years
The later years of Cutler's life were primarily devoted to surgical practice, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School. On August 16, 1947, he died from prostate cancer in Brookline, Massachusetts.2
Honors and awards
In April 1922, Cutler received the Distinguished Service Medal for his military service in the First World War. For his distinguished service in the Second World War, he received a second Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit from the United States War Department, the Order of the British Empire by King George VI of Britain, the Croix de Guerre by the French government, the Companion of the Order of the Bath, and Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. In June 1947, he received the prestigious Henry Jacob Bigelow Medal of the Boston Surgical Society for his accomplishments in surgery.1 The Harvard Medical School established a professorship of surgery in Cutler's name in 1965.2
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Cutler, Elliott Carr, 1888-1947. Papers, 1911-1948: A Finding Aid.". Harvard University Library. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Elliot Cutler". PBS. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Westaby, Stephen (2005). "Houston and Oxford: A Celebration of International Fellowship". Texas Heart Institute Journal 32 (3): 303–317, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1336700. Retrieved on 4 July 2008.
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