[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 TRIBUTE TO GORDON B. AVERY, M.D., PH.D. A LEADER IN PEDIATRIC HEALTH 
                                  CARE

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Mr. President, today I would like to invite my 
colleagues to note a milestone in the career of a nationally known 
leader in pediatric health care, Dr. Gordon B. Avery, M.D., Ph.D.
  Launching a career that included a residency at Bethesda Naval 
Hospital and service as chief of pediatrics at Quantico Naval Hospital 
in Quantico, VA, Dr. Avery has successfully labored to provide 
outstanding leadership in a career that spans four decades.
  Born in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 10, 1931, Gordon Avery completed 
his secondary education in Massachusetts, and went on to receive a 
bachelor of arts degree from Harvard College, a degree in medicine and 
a doctorate in embryology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958 
and 1959.
  Currently the chief of medicine and pediatrician-in-chief at the 
Children's National Medical Center, Dr. Avery's achievements on behalf 
of our children and academic medicine are especially noteworthy. This 
year, Dr. Avery marks 30 years of service to the Children's National 
Medical Center. Families whose critically ill children are healed at 
the Children's National Medical Center owe Gordon Avery a debt of 
gratitude for his work as both a researcher and clinician, and as a 
nationally recognized pioneer in the field of neonatology.
  Gordon Avery is a dedicated clinician. Under his leadership, 
Children's National Medical Center was one of the few regional referral 
centers that helped develop extracorporal membrane oxygenation, or 
ECMO. Today, ECMO is a well-established technology--a mini heart, lung, 
and blood machine, with well-trained medical professionals practiced in 
its effective use to save the lives of premature infants born with 
under-developed lungs. Over many years, Dr. Avery built and organized a 
cadre of some of the most talented and committee physicians in the 
world to pioneer the proper care and optimal administration of health 
services for newborns.
  He is a physician who has led his profession in defining the scope 
and critical issues in the subspecialty of neonatology. His lectures 
and publications are not narrowly confined, but instead cover almost 
the entire scope of what was once a new subspecialty.
  Dr. Avery has written and lectured on a variety of topics, including: 
Transport issues for the high-risk infant; developing and managing the 
neonatal intensive care nursery; automation in the clinical pediatric 
laboratory; ethics in the intensive care nursery; moral issues in 
newborn care; sepsis; apnea in the newborn; and nutrition in the 
premature infant, to name but a few.
  In addition to his 120 published journal articles, he authored and 
edited a textbook, some would say the textbook on neonatology, 
``Neonatology, Pathophysiology and Management of the Newborn.'' Now in 
its fourth edition, this text has been translated into Spanish, 
Portuguese, and Italian.
  Dr. Avery holds the post on interim chairman of pediatrics at the 
George Washington University School of Medicine, and is also the chief 
operating officer of the Children's Research Institute [CRI] at 
Children's National Medical Center. CRI is a unique national resource 
with state-of-the-art facilities and a direct link to a 279-bed 
pediatric specialty care hospital in the heart of the Nation's Capital. 
CRI is a privately supported undertaking with six centers and endowed 
research chairs in areas such as immunology and virology conducting 
critical pediatric health research.
  I have named but a few of the contributions that Dr. Avery has made 
to the field of neonatology and the effective practice of pediatric 
medicine. In marking 125 years of service to children, Children's 
National Medical Center is very proud of this physician's contribution 
to the institution, our children and the field of neonatology.
  Mr. President, I rise today to add my name to the long list of 
people, including parents, children, and colleagues who applaud the 
dedication and achievements that mark 30 years of uninterrupted service 
by Dr. Gordon Avery.

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