View source for Alton Ochsner

{{short description|American physician}}

{{Infobox medical person
|name              = Alton Ochsner
|honorific_suffix  = M.D.
|image             = 
|caption           = Alton Ochsner
|birth_date        = {{birth date|1896|5|4}}
|birth_place       = [[Kimball, South Dakota|Kimball]], [[South Dakota]], U.S.<ref>''Re-echoing the Past'', Elsie Petula, 2000, pp 12-13</ref>
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1981|9|24|1896|5|4}}  
|death_place       = [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], U.S.
|profession        = [[Surgeon]]; [[medical researcher]]
|specialism        = 
|research_field    = Surgery
|known_for         = Founder of Ochsner Clinic
|years_active      = 
|education         = [[Washington University in St. Louis]]<br/>[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]]
|work_institutions = [[Tulane University]], [[Touro Infirmary]], Ochsner Clinic
|prizes            =
|relations         = 
}}

'''Alton Ochsner, Sr., M.D.''' (May 4, 1896 &ndash; September 24, 1981), was a [[surgery|surgeon]]  and medical researcher who worked at [[Tulane University]] and other [[New Orleans]] hospitals before he established [[The Ochsner Clinic]]. Now known as [[Ochsner Medical Center]], the clinic is the flagship hospital of [[Ochsner Health System]]. Among its many services are [[heart transplant]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ventura |first1=HO |title=Alton Ochsner, MD: Physician. |journal=The Ochsner Journal |date=2002 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=48–52 |pmid=22822315|pmc=3399234 }}</ref>

==Medical career==

Reared in [[Kimball, South Dakota|Kimball]], [[South Dakota]], Ochsner was an unlikely hero of Southern medicine. He was recruited to Tulane from the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]]. In 1927, he succeeded [[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 [[Charity Hospital (New Orleans)|New Orleans Charity Hospital]], an institution that provided invaluable clinical opportunities to Ochsner and his students. Ochsner's refusal to hire a friend of Louisiana governor [[Huey Long]] formed part of the background for Long's establishing another medical school, now the [[Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans|LSU Health Sciences Center]], across the street from the [[Tulane University School of Medicine]].

As a medical student at [[Washington University in St. Louis]], 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]].

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

Ochsner injected his grandchildren with the polio vaccine from Cutter Laboratories, a tragic event which killed his grandson and gave his granddaughter polio.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/05/05/archives/bulbar-polio-kills-doctors-grandson.html|title=BULBAR POLIO KILLS DOCTOR'S GRANDSON (May 5, 1955)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=September 9, 2018}}</ref>

==Ochsner Clinic==

The [[Ochsner Medical Center|Ochsner Clinic]], which he cofounded, was one of the first to document the link between [[cancer]] and [[cigarette]] use.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sirvaitis|first=Karen|title=South Dakota|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X1al2lXC6NYC&pg=PA69|date=1 September 2001|publisher=Lerner Publications|isbn=978-0-8225-4070-0|page=69}}</ref> He pioneered the "war against [[Tobacco smoking|smoking]]." 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.  Known today as the Ochsner Medical Center, it is one of the United States's largest group practices and academic medical centers. In 1990 alone, the clinic had 650,000 outpatient visits.

==Personal life==

In 1948, he was named [[Rex parade|Rex, King of Carnival]].  Ochsner was also involved in [[Conservatism|conservative]] politics, primarily within the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].

Ochsner and his wife had four children.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://obits.nola.com/obituaries/nola/obituary.aspx?n=isabel-lockwood-ochsner&pid=161032305&fhid=5630|title=Dr. Isabel Lockwood Ochsner|newspaper=[[New Orleans Times-Picayune]]|accessdate=November 13, 2012}}</ref>

==Awards==

In 1962, Ochsner received the Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=  https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref>

==References==

<references/>

==External links==
*[http://hnoc.minisisinc.com/thnoc/catalog/3/212 Alton Ochsner Papers] at [http://www.hnoc.org The Historic New Orleans Collection]

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[[Category:American surgeons]]
[[Category:Tobacco researchers]]
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1981 deaths]]
[[Category:Louisiana Republicans]]
[[Category:People from Brule County, South Dakota]]
[[Category:Tulane University faculty]]
[[Category:Washington University School of Medicine alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century surgeons]]