Alton Ochsner

Alton Ochsner (May 4, 1896 - September 6, 1981) was a surgeon and medical researcher who worked at Tulane University and other New Orleans hospitals before he established his own world-renowned The Ochsner Clinic.

Reared in a small South Dakota town, Ochsner was an unlikely hero of southern medicine. He was recruited to Tulane from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1927, he succeeded the legendary Rudolph Matas as professor and chairman of the Tulane Department of Surgery. Although Tulane did not have its own hospital at the time, Ochsner succeeded in organizing one of America's premier surgical teaching programs at New Orleans Charity Hospital, an institution that provided invaluable clinical opportunities to Ochsner and his students.

As a teacher, he became renowned, perhaps notorious to his medical students and residents, for his intense verbal cross-examinations in the Charity Hospital amphitheater, or "bull pen" as it is known. He believed the psychologically taxing ordeal programmed students to perform well under stress and kept them on their toes.

The Ochsner Clinic, which he cofounded, was one of the first to document the link between cancer and cigarette use. He pioneered the "war against smoking."

As a Washington University (St. Louis) medical student, young Ochsner was summoned to observe lung cancer surgery -- something, he was told, that he might never see again. He did not witness another case for seventeen years. Then he observed eight in six months all being smokers who had picked up the habit in World War I.

The Ochsner Clinic is now one of the USA's largest group practices and academic medical centers. One of his most brilliant researchers was Dr. Mary S. Sherman, who was brutally murdered in a still unresolved case in the summer of 1964. In 1990 alone, the clinic had 650,000 outpatient visits. His leadership in exposing the hazards of tobacco and its link to lung cancer remain one of his most important contributions. He maintained this association even though he was criticized and ridiculed by his peers.

At Touro Hospital one of his patents was jazz musician Muggsy Spanier, who credited Ochsner with saving his life and composed the tune "Relaxin' at the Touro" during his recovery.

Numerous honors and awards were bestowed upon Ochsner not only for his success as a surgeon, but as a New Orleanian. In 1948, he received the highest civic honor New Orleans can bestow upon someone - he was named Rex, King of Carnival.

Oschner was also involved in conservative politics. He was a supporter of the Republicans Richard M. Nixon for president and David C. Treen for governor of Louisiana. He also contributed money to efforts to depose the communist Fidel Castro from power in Cuba.

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/Marsh/Jfk-conspiracy/OSCHNER.TXT