A billboard of Dr. Douglas Canning outdoors Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad, India, the place he carried out complicated procedures as a visiting professor.
Picture:
Aseem Shukla
Fame and acclaim in America nowadays are low cost commodities, accorded extra for media appearances than achievement. We must always spend extra time noting the contributions of males like Dr.
Douglas Canning,
one of many world’s main pediatric urologists, who died on Could 30 in a bicycle accident at age 65.
Born in Connecticut, Canning obtained an Armed Forces Scholarship and educated in urology on the Naval Medical Middle in Bethesda, Md. He served within the Navy in San Diego earlier than transferring again east to hitch the Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
He turned chief of the urology division at CHOP in 1997 and led it till his dying, coaching greater than 130 residents and fellows. He was an innovator and professional in treating extreme situations in kids, specifically bladder exstrophy. This can be a uncommon dysfunction affecting about one in about 50,000 births that happens as a child is growing within the womb.
The belly wall doesn’t absolutely type, leaving bones separated and the bladder uncovered to the skin pores and skin. The bladder can’t shut, and urine from kidneys drains into an open space. It’s a traumatic prognosis for a mother or father to listen to.
Canning helped to develop the usual of take care of the situation, which incorporates delicate surgical procedure that he carried out that may make the distinction in a baby’s means to steer a traditional life.
He additionally unfold his data around the globe, notably to India, which with some 20-25 million births a yr accounts for a few fifth of the world’s instances of bladder exstrophy. He and a CHOP colleague,
Aseem Shukla,
shaped a collaborative effort with docs from different hospitals to switch the data to Indian docs and hospitals.
Amid our present nationwide distemper and distrust of consultants in so many fields, we must always recognize those that lead lives of quiet dedication and consequence. Doug Canning made life higher for hundreds in ways in which go unsung within the broader tradition however are miraculous for many who have benefited.
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Appeared within the June 14, 2022, print version.
