Vital Times 2019 - 110
After our August CSA history committee meeting,
I resolved to learn more about the device. I was
initially disappointed, however, to discover
that Forrest Leffingwell did not actually help
create the esophageal stethoscope. Through the
wealth of material provided by Judith Robins,
Museum Registrar at the Wood Library-Museum
of Anesthesiology, I could not find evidence of
Leffingwell's involvement with its innovation.
This created doubt about my memory of having
used it-doubt which only grew when a residency
classmate and a former Chair of Anesthesiology
at Loma Linda both denied remembering a
"Leffingwell Esophageal Stethoscope."
However, Ms. Robins was able to provide proof
from several different anesthesia supply catalogs
dating as far back as 1960 - when Leffingwell was
still Chair of Anesthesiology at White Memorial,
and Director/Secretary-Treasurer of the American
Board of Anesthesiology - that a Leffingwell
Esophageal Stethoscope was indeed manufactured.
Its maker was Du Pa Co, Inc. (re-named Dupaco,
Inc. in 1966), a company which was based at the
time in Arcadia, CA, a city adjacent to Pasadena,
where Leffingwell lived. Unique to its design was
a perforated balloon at the distal end. The balloon
allowed sound to accumulate, while perforations
amplified the noise. While we do not know if Du Pa
Co specifically named the stethoscope after Forrest
Leffingwell, the location of the company and the
timing of the device's first manufacture make this a
possibility.
Leffingwell's Early Life
While I could not clarify Leffingwell's connection
to the esophageal stethoscope, my studies deepened
110 | CSA Vital Times
my understanding of him as a person and a leader.
Who was this remarkable human being, after whom
the annual eponymous CSA lecture is named?
What made him so successful?
Forrest E. Leffingwell's story began in Severy,
Kansas. As a young child, he moved with his family
via covered wagon to Grand Junction, Colorado,
where he completed primary and secondary
schools. 3 Reared as a Seventh-Day Adventist
(SDA), he completed his undergraduate work in
Lincoln, Nebraska, at the SDA Union College,
which remains to this day a feeder school for the
Loma Linda University School of Medicine-
formerly called the College of Medical Evangelists
(CME). Leffingwell first taught music and business
at an Iowa high school for a few years before
enrolling in medical school. 4
The College of Medical Evangelists
The College of Medical Evangelists (CME) was
established in Loma Linda in 1905. The SDA
Church believed that it could provide tangible aid
to communities through health care, which would
also further its evangelistic mission. The first class
graduated in 1911, a year after the landmark Flexner
Report on medical education was published.
By 1915, the clinical caseload in Loma Linda
was deemed insufficient, so a new hospital was
established in the Boyle Heights area of Los
Angeles. Boyle Heights was specifically chosen as
the location for White Memorial Hospital due to its
economic need. The hospital was named after Ellen
White (1820-1915), recently deceased leader of the
SDA Church.
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