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Surgical Shock and the Shockless Operation Through Anoci-Association
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William Edgar Lower was an American surgeon. During his career, he served at various medical establishments including Lakeside Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Alexis Hospital, and others.
Background
William Edgar Lower was born on May 6, 1867 in Canton, Ohio, United States, the younger of two sons and second of three children of Henry Lower, a farmer, and Mary (Deeds) Lower. The family presently moved to a small farm near Baltic, Ohio. This was only a few miles from Chili, the home of young Lower's cousin George W. Crile, and the two boys formed a strong friendship that continued for life.
Education
Lower attended the local district schools, entered the Northwestern Ohio Normal School (later Ohio Northern University), and after enrolled in the medical department of Wooster University (which was later consolidated with the School of Medicine of Western Reserve University) in Cleveland. He received the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1891 and had one year internship at University Hospital.
Career
Around 1893 Lower joined the surgical practice established by George Crile and Frank E. Bunts in Cleveland and was made a partner in 1895. He was one of the founders of the Lutheran Hospital, which opened in 1896. A member of its first staff, he later served for twenty-two years as president and chief of staff. He was associate surgeon at Lakeside Hospital (1910 - 1931) and director of surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital (1916 - 1924); he also served on the staff of the St. Alexis Hospital in Cleveland.
Lower had begun his career as a general surgeon but soon developed a special interest in genito-urinary problems and in 1901 visited clinics in Berlin and Paris to learn the most advanced operative techniques. Returning to Cleveland, he developed a practice in urology. He became known as a skillful and conservative surgeon who was deeply concerned with the postoperative welfare of his patients. He was particularly interested in improving the diagnostic methods used in surgical diseases of the kidney, and helped simplify and standardize the operative procedures in his field.
In 1898 Lower had been appointed a lecturer at the Western Reserve medical school; he was afterward (1910 - 1931) associate professor of genito-urinary surgery there. During the Philippine Insurrection, Lower served as acting assistant surgeon with the 9th Cavalry (1900 - 1901), and then became a major in the Medical Reserve Corps. He again saw military service during World War I, when he went to France in 1917 as assistant surgical director of the Lakeside base hospital unit organized early in the war by Crile. The unit first served in Rouen, France, as Base Hospital No. 9, with the British Expeditionary Force. After America's entry into the war, the unit was assigned to the American Expeditionary Forces as Base Hospital No. 4. Lower was promoted to lieutenant colonel in May 1918 and was made commanding officer of the Lakeside unit.
During their period of service in France the three partners--Crile, Lower, and Bunts--had been impressed with the medical advantages offered by a base hospital, in which a patient had available the skills of a wide variety of specialists, including internists, surgeons, pathologists, radiologists, and nurses. After their return to Cleveland at the end of the war, the three undertook to establish a private institution with similar advantages: a hospital that would be independent of the university and would include provision for medical research and teaching as well as comprehensive medical care. Together with John Phillips, an internist, they secured a charter for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a nonprofit corporation. The clinic building was formally opened in 1921, and the first unit of the permanent hospital buildings in 1924. Lower served as an administrative officer of the clinic and head of the department of urology, work that occupied his attention for the remainder of his life. Lower's keen business sense helped the clinic survive the tragic disaster of 1929, when an explosion of nitrocellulose films caused great loss of life and a financial setback. His business ability and careful planning also helped carry the clinic through the Great Depression of the 1930's.
Genito-urinary surgery remained Lower's major interest. He published some 170 papers and collaborated with Crile in the writing of Anoci-Association (1914) and with B. H. Nichols in Roentgenographic Studies of the Genito-Urinary Tract (1933). He also had an active interest in the affairs of organized medicine and served as president of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine. To stimulate continuing education, he provided funds to establish an annual lecture at the Academy of Medicine.
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Membership
Lower was a member of the American Surgical Association, the American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons (president, 1922), and the Clinical Society of Genito-Urinary Surgeons (president, 1922). He served as a president of the Ohio State Medical Society.
Interests
Lower's hobby was work, but he understood the importance of relaxation and escape from daily pressures. Horseback riding was a favorite exercise at the small farm he maintained near Painesville, Ohio.
Connections
On September 6, 1909, Lower married Mabel Loring Freeman of Worcester, Massachusetts. They had one daughter, Molly.