[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 104 (Thursday, June 21, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4339-S4340]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                  REMEMBERING DR. J. ALEX HALLER, JR.

 Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to Dr. 
J. Alex Haller, Jr., a pioneer in the field of pediatric surgery, who 
died on June 13 at the age of 91. Theodore Roosevelt once said, ``The 
greatest gift life has to offer is the opportunity to work hard at work 
worth doing.'' Alex Haller certainly spent his life working hard on 
something worthwhile. He was a professor emeritus of pediatrics, 
surgery, and emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and 
was the surgeon in charge of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center for 
nearly 30 years. Over the course of his distinguished career, he became 
known as the ``father of pediatric trauma care.'' Throughout his life, 
Dr. Haller pushed the boundaries and transformed how we care for our 
children.
  Dr. Haller was born in Pulaski, VA, in 1927. He earned his bachelor's 
degree from Vanderbilt University and then came to Baltimore to earn 
his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After he 
graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1951, Dr. Haller spent a year as a 
fellow in pathology at the University of Zurich, and then served in the 
military for 2 years. He returned to Johns Hopkins to complete his 
residency. In 1959, he went to Louisville General Hospital, where he 
served as chief of cardiac surgery for 4 years. Then, Alfred Blalock, 
the chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins, asked him to return to head the 
new pediatric surgery division Blalock planned to launch.
  During his time at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Haller was responsible for 
helping to make Johns Hopkins one of the best hospitals for pediatric 
care in the country. For almost 30 years, he served as the surgeon in 
charge of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and was the founding co-
director of the division pediatrics. He created the regional trauma 
center for children, the first such program of its kind in the United 
States, and at his urging, Johns Hopkins became the first academic 
medical center to implement pediatric surgery subspecialties.
  Outside of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Haller created opportunities for his 
colleagues to learn from one another. He was one of 24 pediatric 
surgeons who founded the American Pediatric Surgical Association and 
played a key role in developing the Pediatric Advanced Life Support, or 
PALS, protocol, which details the steps and procedures for stabilizing 
critically injured children or those with other emergency conditions.
  Nelson Mandela once said ``There can be no keener revelation of a 
society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.'' Dr. 
Haller spent his life ensuring that our children will have the best 
care that modern medicine can offer. He leaves a lasting legacy in the 
lives of children whom he saved and who will be saved because of his 
pioneering work and because he trained so many other doctors and 
surgeons who carry on the mission. On behalf of my colleagues, I send 
my deepest condolences to his wife of 67 years, Emily Simms, whom he 
met in college and who became an obstetrician; his daughter, Dr. Julia 
Haller, ophthalmologist in chief at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia; 
two sons, J. Alex Haller III of Asheville, NC, and Frederick B. 
``Fritz'' Haller of Winston-Salem, NC; another daughter, Clare Haller 
Hughes of New Canaan, CT; and 16 grandchildren. In the midst of his 
family's grief, I hope they can find solace in reflecting on what a 
truly great and kind and humane person Dr. Haller was. The Baltimore 
Sun contained an obituary and I ask that the obituary be printed in the 
Record following my remarks. The obituary, I think, captures Dr. 
Haller's wonderful humanity, which should serve as a beacon for all of 
us to follow.
  The material follows:

[[Page S4340]]

  


                 [From the Baltimore Sun, June 6, 2018]

J. Alex Haller Jr., Johns Hopkins Pediatric Surgeon Who Gained Fame in 
                    Separating Conjoined Twins, Dies

                           (By Jacques Kelly)

       Dr. J. Alex Haller Jr., a retired Johns Hopkins pediatric 
     surgeon recalled as the ``father of pediatric trauma care,'' 
     died of respiratory arrest June 13 at his Glencoe home. He 
     was 91.
       He was a professor emeritus of pediatrics, surgery and 
     emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and 
     was the surgeon-in-charge of the Johns Hopkins Children's 
     Center for nearly 30 years.
       ``Putting yourself in a child's shoes is part of being a 
     good surgeon,'' he once said.
       Born in Pulaski, Va., he was son of J. Alex Haller, a 
     dentist, and his wife Julia Allison.
       Emerging from scarlet fever as a young child--he lost his 
     hair permanently as a result--he was determined to go into 
     medicine.
       After the death of his mother, he was raised by his father 
     and two maiden aunts who instilled a strong moral sense in 
     him. An Eagle Scout, he was a 1944 graduate of Pulaski High 
     School, where he played basketball.
       He obtained a bachelor's degree at Vanderbilt University, 
     where he met his future wife, Emily Simms. She would go on to 
     become an obstetrician.
       In a 2008 oral history, he said he came to Baltimore in 
     1947 and hailed a cab at Penn Station to take him to Hopkins. 
     He wound up, incorrectly, at the Homewood campus in North 
     Baltimore. From there he caught a streetcar to the East 
     Baltimore medical school.
       ``I went down through every imaginable slum area, and it 
     got worse and worse as I went deeper and deeper into East 
     Baltimore and finally ended up right there at the hospital,'' 
     he said. ``I got out and said to myself, `Oh, my. This is the 
     end of the world.' . . . So I registered and that was the 
     beginning of my medical school journey.''
       While in medical school, Dr. Haller also studied at Boston 
     Children's Hospital, where he developed an interest in 
     pediatric surgery. After graduating from Hopkins in 1951, he 
     studied pathology at the University of Zurich.
       He did his military service in the Coast Guard--he said he 
     was mainly called upon to remove tattoos--and at the National 
     Institutes of Health.
       He performed his residency at Hopkins and joined the 
     faculty of the University of Louisville in 1959, where he 
     served as chief of cardiac surgery at the Louisville General 
     Hospital. The renowned Johns Hopkins surgeon Alfred Blalock 
     asked him to return to Baltimore to head a new pediatric 
     surgery division.
       In 1971 Hopkins opened the country's first pediatric 
     emergency room within a general hospital. In an article in 
     The Baltimore Sun about the opening of the new facility, Dr. 
     Haller said he did not like mixing children with adults in 
     crowded general emergency rooms.
       In 1982 he led a surgical team that separated conjoined 
     twins, who were connected at their chests. The twin girls, 
     Emily and Francesca Selvaggio, were separated in a 10-hour 
     surgery.
       ``Dr. Haller was a pioneer in pediatric surgery and 
     responsible for training innumerable surgeons and leaders in 
     the field,'' said Dr. George Dover, former director of the 
     Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University 
     School of Medicine and former pediatrician-in-chief of the 
     Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
       He said Dr. Haller ``was responsible for the concept of the 
     Children's Medical and Surgical Center . . . the first 
     building to house all children in a separate facility at 
     Johns Hopkins. His impact on pediatric medicine was 
     enormous.''
       Dr. Haller also worked with the University of Maryland's 
     shock trauma pioneer, R Adams Cowley, to organize a statewide 
     shock trauma system, the Maryland Emergency Medical Services 
     system.
       ``By far, the leading cause of pediatric death was then and 
     remains trauma--injury from auto accidents, falls and 
     burns,'' said Dr. James A. O'Neill, a friend for more than 50 
     years.
       ``The basis of trauma medicine was military experience in 
     Korea and Vietnam. Very little was known about how to treat 
     children involved in accidents,'' Dr. O'Neill said. ``Dr. 
     Haller led the effort to treat injured children and is truly 
     the father of pediatric trauma care.''
       Dr. O'Neill, a professor of pediatric surgery at Vanderbilt 
     University, also called Dr. Haller ``a true social genius. He 
     could relate to anyone. He was charming, outgoing, calm, 
     humble and sensitive to other people. He had a fantastic 
     sense of humor and an appreciation for other people's 
     strengths as well as their foibles. He never cared about 
     money.''
       ``He was one of the best-known and well-beloved persons to 
     walk the halls of Hopkins,'' said his daughter Dr. Julia 
     Haller, ophthalmologist-in-chief at Wills Eye Hospital in 
     Philadelphia, Pa.
       ``As a father, he gave us a wonderful childhood,'' she 
     said. ``He shared his enthusiasm about the world with all of 
     us.''
       He published more than 350 scholarly papers and 60 book 
     chapters. He also wrote the 1967 book, ``The Hospitalized 
     Child and His Family.''
       His daughter said her father and mother were a well-known 
     couple, particularly in the Hopkins medical community.
       ``They were true partners, and each year hosted back-to-
     back Christmas parties on Friday and Saturday nights so that 
     whoever had the weekend rotation could attend,'' she said.
       ``They served country ham and crab dip. Everyone sang 
     Christmas carols late into the night,'' she said. ``On family 
     vacations, they canoed together. When we were young, they 
     spent a month as camp doctors in western North Carolina. My 
     father threw himself in all the camp activities, too.
       ``It's not hard to see why children loved him,'' she said.
       He was the recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics' 
     William Edwards Ladd Medal, the Denis Browne Gold Medal, the 
     British Association of Pediatric Surgeons' award and the 
     Vaclav Kafka Medal from the Society of Pediatric Surgery of 
     Bohemia.
       A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. June 23 at the Episcopal 
     Cathedral of the Incarnation, University Parkway and St. Paul 
     Street.
       In addition to his wife of 67 years and daughter, survivors 
     include two sons, J. Alex Haller III of Asheville, N.C., and 
     Frederick B. ``Fritz'' Haller of Winston-Salem, N.C.; another 
     daughter, Clare Haller Hughes of New Canaan, Conn.; and 16 
     grandchildren.

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