Alumni Association Newsletter - Children's Hospital Boston

Children’s Hospital Boston’s Alumni Association Newsletter
An Affair of the Heart
The cardiac pathology lab at Children’s Hospital
Boston bears a simple plaque: The Drs. Stella
and Richard Van Praagh Cardiac Registry. Behind
the inscription lies a tale of partnership in life,
love, and work. The Van Praaghs dedicated their
professional lives to advancing the understanding
of complex heart disease in infants and children,
developing the segmental diagnostic approach
now used worldwide. They conducted groundbreaking
cardiac studies and, with colleagues,
produced more than 270 publications.
Richard Van Praagh, MD, grew up in Toronto
and graduated from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine in 1954.
Ten years of postgraduate work took him from an internship in pediatrics at
Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, to extensive study in the United States —
including Children’s Hospital Boston, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the Mayo
Clinic in Minnesota, and the Hektoen Institute in Chicago. His love of pediatrics
and pathology, fueled by fascination with heart disease, gave his investigations a
unique perspective. Along the way, he worked with some of the leading lights of
pediatrics, hematology, surgery and cardiology: Jeremy Swan, MD, at the Mayo
Clinic; Helen Taussig, MD, at John’s Hopkins; Maurice Lev, MD, at Hektoen; and
Sidney Farber, MD, Charles Janeway, MD, Louis Diamond, MD, Robert Gross,
MD, and Alexander Nadas, MD, in Boston.
In 1962, he married Stella Zacharioudaki, MD, whose passion for investigating
pediatric heart disease matched his own. Three years (and three children) later,
they returned to Boston at the invitation of Drs. Nadas, Farber, and Gross to
found the cardiac pathology lab, known as the Cardiac Registry. “From the
beginning, the Registry was an integral part of the Departments of Pathology,
Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery,” says Richard. “Staff from all three departments
felt comfortable working together here.” The interdepartmental model, and the
Van Praaghs’ broad training in pediatrics, pediatric cardiology, pathology, and
embryology nurtured collaboration and education.
In addition to clarifying the anatomy, morphogenesis, diagnosis and management
of many specific forms of congenital heart disease, the Van Praaghs discovered 13
new types of congenital heart anomalies. They also developed five new surgical
operations. The Van Praaghs were co-recipients of the 1999 Distinguished
Achievement Award of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology, and the 2004
Paul Dudley White Award of the Northeast Affiliation of the American Heart
Association.
Tragically, Stella passed away after a brief illness in June, 2006. But her husband
of 44 years is making steady progress on their life’s work – a clinico-pathological
study of more than 3,400 cardiac case studies, some never described before.
“I retired in 2002 because I knew it was the only way I could get some work
done,” he says with a smile. “Some of the material is more than 60 years old,
but it’s amazing how many new insights I’m discovering. It’s an argument for
re-examining your own data—there will be lots of new surprises.”
Life Income Gifts:
The Three-Step
Concept
Perhaps you’d like to supplement
your retirement plan, provide a
predictable income stream to a
dependent, or simply rebalance your
stock portfolio without incurring
capital gains taxes. Life income
plans can help you solve these and
other problems.
But did you know a life income
plan may also enable you to make
a major gift and create your own
legacy for Children’s Hospital
Boston?
You Receive Income
Now and Create a
Better Future for
Others
The concept of a life income plan is
quite simple. You make an
irrevocable gift to Children’s now —
with cash or appreciated property,
such as securities — but you retain
the right to receive the income or
payments from the gift for life or a
term of years.
Some plans allow you to choose
between a fixed income and a
variable income. Most importantly,
you can strategically plan your gift to
achieve many personal objectives:
Converting highly appreciated, lowyielding
securities into an attractive
income stream without taxation;
providing for a dependent relative in
a tax-efficient way; or supplementing
your current retirement plan without
penalty.
With life income gift plans, both the
donor and Children’s Hospital
benefit. The following examples