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In Memoriam: Paul Crawford Gillette
In Memoriam: Paul Crawford Gillette Arthur Garson Jr, MD, MPH From the Center for Health Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908.
Paul Gillette’s favorite expression was “No guts, no glory.” He was about the gutsiest person I knew and I don’t think he ever got enough glory. Paul started with pediatric electrophysiology in the mid-1970s. Think of what that tooky the world of electrophysiology was just emerging in adult patients—many of whom had myocardial infarction, heart failure, and aging hearts. Paul’s patients were newborns (even fetuses) born with heart disease or those who had had surgery for congenital heart disease. The arrhythmias had the same names: atrioventricular block, ventricular tachycardia, and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. But the similarity ended there. Intracardiac measurements were all different and varied with age—how to establish normals? He learned from the best of those caring for adults as well as the pioneers
in treatment of arrhythmias in children. Imagine the guts to put 4 catheters into a heart the size of a small chestnut with catheters used in adults. He worked to develop the technology specifically for infants and children so that the procedures became safer and yielded more helpful data. Paul’s patients adored him; he had literally thousands from around the world in the early years—and he remembered their names, their parents, brothers, and sisters and had the gift of seeming to take forever with each one. He taught many of us. For those fortunate enough to learn directly from him, Paul taught us that innovation was not only permissible, it was expected. It was by watching him work, watching him think, that those of us who worked with him were able to build on what he started—and what he continued. His books, some of which I was proud to work on with him, started with the complexities of electrophysiology and then—like so many things—it became clear that less complex was better and his later books with his wonderful wife, Vicki, were aimed at more general audiences. He took these principles forward, creating innovative approaches to pediatric cardiology in Charleston and in Ft. Worth. I saw Paul about 6 months ago. He was a happy person taking care of patients and loving his family. There are tens of thousands of children who have grown to have their own families because of Paul Gillette. We mourn his passing.
1547-5271/$-see front matter B 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Heart Rhythm Society.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2013.01.034
Paul Gillette’s favorite expression was “No guts, no glory.” He was about the gutsiest person I knew and I don’t think he ever got enough glory. Paul started with pediatric electrophysiology in the mid-1970s. Think of what that tooky the world of electrophysiology was just emerging in adult patients—many of whom had myocardial infarction, heart failure, and aging hearts. Paul’s patients were newborns (even fetuses) born with heart disease or those who had had surgery for congenital heart disease. The arrhythmias had the same names: atrioventricular block, ventricular tachycardia, and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. But the similarity ended there. Intracardiac measurements were all different and varied with age—how to establish normals? He learned from the best of those caring for adults as well as the pioneers
in treatment of arrhythmias in children. Imagine the guts to put 4 catheters into a heart the size of a small chestnut with catheters used in adults. He worked to develop the technology specifically for infants and children so that the procedures became safer and yielded more helpful data. Paul’s patients adored him; he had literally thousands from around the world in the early years—and he remembered their names, their parents, brothers, and sisters and had the gift of seeming to take forever with each one. He taught many of us. For those fortunate enough to learn directly from him, Paul taught us that innovation was not only permissible, it was expected. It was by watching him work, watching him think, that those of us who worked with him were able to build on what he started—and what he continued. His books, some of which I was proud to work on with him, started with the complexities of electrophysiology and then—like so many things—it became clear that less complex was better and his later books with his wonderful wife, Vicki, were aimed at more general audiences. He took these principles forward, creating innovative approaches to pediatric cardiology in Charleston and in Ft. Worth. I saw Paul about 6 months ago. He was a happy person taking care of patients and loving his family. There are tens of thousands of children who have grown to have their own families because of Paul Gillette. We mourn his passing.
1547-5271/$-see front matter B 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Heart Rhythm Society.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2013.01.034