rving M. Pallin, M.D., ASA President in 1957, died this past October 8. Notice was received by way of a returned ASA membership letter.

Dr. Pallin was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and received his undergraduate training and medical degree from Tufts Medical School. He completed a two-year internship at the W.W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1939. He elected to enter the specialty of anesthesiology and was accepted at the New York Postgraduate Hospital program under the direction of Milton C. Peterson, M.D., an E.A. Rovenstine graduate.

Irving M. Pallin, M.D. 1957 ASA President

During his residency, he dated a nursing supervisor from a nearby hospital whom he eventually married; her name was Anne Gertrude Lear.

Upon completion of his residency training, Dr. Pallin entered into a solo clinical practice, traveling from case to case with a miniature anesthesia apparatus and a cylinder of cyclopropane in his car trunk. In 1942 he was invited to establish an anesthesia department at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn. On arrival at his new post, he found anesthesia services provided by nurse anesthetists at the beck and call of the surgeons. Coincidently one of the nurse anesthetists was his niece, Ruth Lear.

Dr. Pallin was often requested by the chief surgeon for difficult cases. The quality of the medical anesthesia provided led to requests from other surgeons, and soon a medically based anesthesia service became a reality. Over time Dr. Pallin collected a talented staff of attendings such as Drs. Samuel I. Josephs and Eli Brown. Dr. Josephs was an M.D., Ph.D. (a cardio-physiologist) who later became a governor of the American College of Anesthesiologists. Dr. Brown went on to create the department of anesthesiology at the newly constructed Sinai Hospital of Detroit and was soon appointed Chair of Anesthesiology at Wayne State Medical School. He later became the 1981 ASA President.

Under Dr. Pallin’s leadership, the anesthesia service at the Jewish Hospital flourished. The hospital was a primary teaching facility of the Long Island College of Medicine, and medical students were rotated through all major services, including anesthesia. Dr. Pallin was instrumental in attracting Merel Harmel, M.D., to the medical school when it was taken over by the New York State University system in 1950. He was appointed clinical professor at the medical school.

Within Dr. Pallin’s department, teaching and research were emphasized. Senior residents were required to complete a research project under faculty supervision. One of the research projects led indirectly to the introduction of nallyl-oxymorphone. A small family-owned company (Endo) produced Numorphan, which was said to have analgesic potency equivalent to morphone without the respiratory depression. DuPont later bought out the firm. Within Dr. Pallin’s department, studies found the claims to be untrue, and the company’s biochemist synthesized a compound to offset the respiratory depression; it acquired the brand name of “Narcan.” Indeed it offset respiratory depression. Numerous studies were subsequently published by Dr. Pallin’s staff dealing with tranquilizers, analgesics and cyclohexylamines.

From April to June, anatomy and nerve blocks were taught by the anesthesia staff by utilizing cadavers at the anatomy laboratory of the medical school. This staff also ran the pain clinic. On the clinical side, obstetrical anesthesia was provided by full-time attending staff supplemented by “moonlighters,” B.R. Fink, M.D., among others. Epidurals for labor and delivery were provided as well as music piped into the labor and delivery rooms. Cardiac anesthesia for mitral and aortic valve surgery was provided before the days of the bypass machine. Hypothermia for neurosurgery was also utilized.

Over the course of time, international residents arrived at Dr. Pallin’s department. In the early 1950s, the Japanese government sent several physicians to be retrained as anesthesiologists in order to bring the specialty up to date. Among these physicians were chest surgeons, internists and an infectious disease specialist. One of these residents, O. Aochi, M.D., became the first chair at the medical school in Kyoto. Residents from other countries included the Philippines, Thailand and Italy, to mention a few.

While Dr. Pallin may be remembered primarily for this ASA activities, his earlier efforts were directed at the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists (NYSSA) and its PostGraduate Assembly (PGA). In this environment, he functioned at many levels, culminating in the NYSSA presidency.

In the mid-1960s, Dr. Pallin was consulted by a firm that was building a hospital in Sun City, Arizona. Since he was nearing mandatory retirement at the Jewish Hospital, Dr. Pallin not only served as consultant to the hospital builders but agreed to establish an anesthesia service; hence he retired and moved to Sun City, Arizona.

Three of his children also moved west: Samuel Pallin, Mary Jane Sandler and Jonathan Pallin. A fourth child, Carol Sue Sandler, remained in New York. Sadly, her husband perished in the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster.

Dr. Pallin will be cherished by his children, many grandchildren and colleagues.