Eben Alexander Jr

Last updated
Eben Alexander
Born1913
Knoxville, Tennessee
Died2004
OccupationNeurosurgeon
Medical career
FieldNeurosurgery
Sub-specialtiesAcademic neurosurgery
AwardsDistinguished Service Award, Medallion of Merit, Hadassah Humanitarian Award

Eben Alexander Jr (1913 - 2004) was an American academic neurosurgeon and a native of Knoxville, Tennessee. He is known for his notable education and training of neurosurgeons, his many recognition awards, and for his editorship of Surgical Neurology — An International Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience from 1987 to 1994.

Knoxville, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. The city had an estimated population of 186,239 in 2016 and a population of 178,874 as of the 2010 census, making it the state's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which, in 2016, was 868,546, up 0.9 percent, or 7,377 people, from to 2015. The KMSA is, in turn, the central component of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2013, had a population of 1,096,961.

Contents

Early Life and Family

He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His mother was a Canadian graduate nurse, and his father a prominent surgeon. In fact, Alexander came from a distinguished family of scholars that spans several generations. His paternal grandfather Eben Alexander was a diplomat, scholar, and a professor of Greek at the University of North Carolina as well as U.S. Minister to Greece 1892-1896. Alexander's adopted son, Eben Alexander III, M.D., followed his father's footsteps as an academic neurosurgeon, and recently has become a notable author with a best-selling book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife (2012).

Eben Alexander (educator) American scholar, educator, dean, ambassador

Eben Alexander was an American scholar, educator, dean, and ambassador.

<i>Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeons Journey into the Afterlife</i> book by Eben Alexander

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife is a 2012 auto-biographical book written by the American neurosurgeon Eben Alexander III. It relates and discusses his memories of experiences during a coma.

Alexander trained in surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham hospital during 1939-42, joining the U.S. Air Force in 1942. During his military service, Alexander transferred to the ground forces, went overseas to New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan and was awarded the Bronze Star for action in Mindanao, the Philippines. Following his service in the Army Medical Corps, he continued his training in Boston at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, The Children's Hospital, and as a research fellow at Harvard, then at Toronto General Hospital and Yale University School of Medicine, before joining the Wake Forest faculty in 1949.

Peter Bent Brigham American businessman

Peter Bent Brigham (1807–1877) was a self-made American millionaire businessman, restaurateur, real estate trader, and director of the Fitchburg Railroad. He is best known as a philanthropist for his initial endowment of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Brigham Academy in Bakersfield, Vermont.

Toronto General Hospital Hospital in Ontario, Canada

The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and a part of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along a portion of University Avenue known as "Hospital Row"; it is directly north of The Hospital for Sick Children, across Gerrard Street West, and east of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital. The hospital serves as a teaching hospital for the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. In 2019, Newsweek ranked TGH as seventh among top-ten best hospitals in the world. In 2017, the hospital was ranked 1st for research in Canada by Research Infosource.

Wake Forest University Private research university in Winston-Salem, NC, US

Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, has been located north of downtown Winston-Salem since the university moved there in 1956. The Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center campus has two locations, the older one located near the Ardmore neighborhood in central Winston-Salem, and the newer campus at Wake Forest Innovation Quarter downtown. The university also occupies lab space at Biotech Plaza at Innovation Quarter, and at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. The university's Graduate School of Management maintains a presence on the main campus in Winston-Salem and in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Academic Life

Alexander joined the academic faculty at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in 1949 and became Professor and Chief of Neurosurgery. He was Chief of Staff of the North Carolina Baptist Hospital from 1953–73 and also Chairman of Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, 1953-1973. He retired as Chief of service in 1978, and became Emeritus in 1983. Nevertheless, he remained active in his profession, serving as editor of the prominent journal, Surgical Neurology 1986-1994 and Associate Editor of the North Carolina Medical Journal 1986-2004. [1]

Emeritus, in its current usage, is an adjective used to designate a retired professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, or other person.

Alexander was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) in 1989. He was also awarded Wake Forest's highest honor, the University's Medallion of Merit in 1990. He had also received his Local Hadassah Humanitarian Award 1958. He served as president of both The Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), from which he received the Association's highest award, the Cushing Award for Outstanding Service, in 1984. His contribution to the fields of neurology and neurosurgery include over 200 publications with interests ranging from pediatric neurosurgery to cervical spine (vertebral column) disease, fractures of the spine, brain tumor research and congenital anomalies. He continued to write and publish papers for 15 years after his Emeritus status. [1] In his honor, the medical center established the Eben Alexander Jr., M.D., Chair in Neurosurgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. [2]

The Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) was founded in 1920 and is composed of neurosurgical department chairs, residency program directors, and other senior educational leaders, and is the oldest neurosurgical professional organization in the world. The president of the SNS is Kim J. Burchiel, M.D.

American Association of Neurological Surgeons organization

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association focused on advancing the specialty of neurological surgery. The organization has over 8,000 members around the world.

Neurology medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system

Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Neurology deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the central and peripheral nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue, such as muscle. Neurological practice relies heavily on the field of neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system.

Related Research Articles

Neurosurgery medical specialty of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system

Neurosurgery, or neurological surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, surgical treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.

Ralph Bingham Cloward was an American neurosurgeon. He attended the University of Hawaii, finished college in Utah in 1930, thereafter medical school in Utah and finished his degree as a medical doctor at Rush Medical School in Chicago in 1934. He attended as a resident at the University of Chicago under Dr. Bailey. He thereafter moved to Hawaii, where he became the archipelago's first practising neurosurgeon. In connection with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he performed 44 craniotomies in 4 days.

Walter Dandy American neurosurgeon

Walter Edward Dandy was an American neurosurgeon and scientist. He is considered one of the founding fathers of neurosurgery, along with Victor Horsley (1857–1916) and Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). Dandy is credited with numerous neurosurgical discoveries and innovations, including the description of the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, surgical treatment of hydrocephalus, the invention of air ventriculography and pneumoencephalography, the description of brain endoscopy, the establishment of the first intensive care unit, and the first clipping of an intracranial aneurysm, which marked the birth of cerebrovascular neurosurgery. During his 40-year medical career, Dandy published five books and more than 160 peer-reviewed articles while conducting a full-time, ground-breaking neurosurgical practice in which he performed during his peak years about 1000 operations per year. He was recognized at the time as a remarkably fast and particularly dextrous surgeon. Dandy was associated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Hospital his entire medical career. The importance of his numerous contributions to neurosurgery in particular and to medicine in general has increased as the field of neurosurgery has evolved.

John A. Jane, Sr. was an American neurosurgeon, and Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. He was Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia from 1969-2006. Dr. Jane was the program director for the hospital's residency training program in Neurosurgery. He is the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery, a position he had held from 1992 to 2013. During his tenure as the Journal of Neurosurgery's editor, he also founded the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, and Neurosurgical Focus, the first peer-reviewed, online neurosurgery journal. Dr. Jane treated actor Christopher Reeve after the horse riding accident that left Reeve a quadriplegic.

Paul Bucy was an American neurosurgeon and neuropathologist who was a native of Hubbard, Iowa. He is known both for his part in describing the Klüver–Bucy syndrome, his academic life as a teacher in the neurosciences, and for his founding in 1972 and editing Surgical Neurology – An International Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience" from 1972 to 1987.

Professor Francis John Gillingham was a British neurosurgeon.

Roy Glenwood Spurling was an American neurosurgeon remembered for describing Spurling's test.

Ramamurthi Balasubramaniam was an Indian neurosurgeon, author, editor, a pioneer in neurosurgery in India and often recognized as the Father of Neurosurgery of India. He set up the Department of Neurosurgery at the Government General Hospital, Chennai in 1950, the Department of Neurosurgery at the Madras Medical College and founded the Institute of Neurology, Madras in the 1970s. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan and the Dhanvantri Award for his contribution to the field of Neurosurgery in India.

Eben Alexander III is an American neurosurgeon and author. His book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife (2012) describes his 2008 near-death experience and asserts that science can and will determine that the brain does not create consciousness and that consciousness survives bodily death. Alexander is also the author of the 2014 book The Map of Heaven which builds on the claims in his previous book, and coauthor of the 2017 book Living in a Mindful Universe which describes his personal journey since 2008.

Alexa Canady Medical doctor specializing in neurosurgery

Alexa Irene Canady is a retired American medical doctor specializing in neurosurgery. She was born in Lansing, Michigan and earned both her bachelors and medical degree from the University of Michigan. After completing her residency at the University of Minnesota in 1981, she became the first black person to become a neurosurgeon. This came after the first American woman was board certified in Neurosurgery in 1960. Canady specialized in pediatric neurosurgery and was the chief of neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital in Michigan from 1987 until her partial retirement in 2001. In addition to surgery she also conducted research and was a professor of neurosurgery at Wayne State University. After her retirement, she moved to Florida and maintained part-time practice at Pensacola's Sacred Heart Hospital until her full retirement in January 2012. In 1989, Canady was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, and in 1993 she also received the American Medical Women's Association President's Award. Dr. Canady was known amongst her peers as a patient-focused surgeon who cared deeply about each of her patients.

Roger Härtl American neurosurgeon

Roger Härtl is a board-certified neurological surgeon at Weill-Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He is Director of Spinal Surgery at the Weill Cornell Brain & Spine Center in New York and the neurosurgeon for the New York Giants. Härtl has been named by Becker's Spine Review as one of the Top 50 Spine Surgeons in the United States as well as one of the Top 10 Spine and Neurosurgeon Leaders at Non-Profit Hospitals. He was named one of New York's Top Doctors by New York magazine after he saved the life of New York firefighter Eugene Stolowski, whose leap from a burning building left him critically injured.

Nicholas Theodore neurosurgeon

Nicholas Theodore is an American neurosurgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is known for his work in spinal trauma, robotics and personalized medicine. He is Director of the Neurosurgical Spine Program at Johns Hopkins and Co-Director of the Carnegie Center for Surgical Innovation at Johns Hopkins.

Albert Loren Rhoton Jr., was an American neurosurgeon and a professor specializing in microsurgical neuroanatomy. He developed and introduced a number of microsurgical techniques that improved the safety and effectiveness of neurosurgery, including the use of the surgical microscope in neurosurgery. He also designed many of the commonly used of microneurosurgical instruments, which bear his name. Such tools in use worldwide include the Rhoton Micro Dissectors designed for delicate work in the treatment of brain aneurysms and tumor resection.

Michael L. J. Apuzzo Neurological surgeon

Michael L. J. Apuzzo is an American academic neurological surgeon, the Edwin M. Todd/Trent H. Wells, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Neurological Surgery and Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics at the Keck School of Medicine, of the University of Southern California. He is also editor emeritus of the peer-reviewed journals World Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery. He is distinguished adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine, distinguished professor of advanced neurosurgery and neuroscience and senior advisor, at the Neurological Institute, Wexner Medical School, The Ohio State University, and adjunct professor of neurosurgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, Department of Neurological Surgery & Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center.

Frank Henderson Mayfield, was an American neurosurgeon and founder of the Mayfield Clinic and Spine Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. A pioneer in brain and spine surgery, he invented the spring aneurysm clip and the Mayfield skull clamp. Mayfield is best known for his clinical interests in peripheral nerve and spine injuries, development of neurosurgical instruments, and medical politics.

Charles Anthony Fager was born in Nassau, Bahamas, British West Indies. He had a long career as a neurosurgeon in the United States.

Stewart Dunsker M.D., a neurosurgeon, is Professor and Director of Spinal Neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and Director of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Rashiduddin Ahmad was a Bangladeshi neurosurgeon. He received Independence Day Award in 1999 from the Government of Bangladesh. He was a sportsperson in his early days and was the recipient of 2007 Bangladesh National Sports Award in the basketball category.

References

  1. 1 2 "Deceased Member, Eben Alexander, Jr., M.D." The Society of Neurological Surgeons. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Renowned Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander Dies at 91". Wake Forest Bapstist medical Center, 2004. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.