My Fellow Radiology Residents; University of Illinois 1971

On the 1^st of July 1971, five young residents started a 3-year radiology residency. The department of Radiology had three divisions; Diagnostic, Therapy and Nuclear Medicine. In the Diagnostic division of that era chest x-rays and skeletal x-rays, were the majority of the studies. Upper and lower GIs were more numerous and detailed.  Intravenous pyelograms were fewer and more involved. Angiography was performed with needle sticks of the arteries of the organ to be studied.  Nuclear Medicine concentrated mainly on the thyroid gland, renal perfusion and bone and liver scanning. Radiation Therapy was performed with Ortho-voltage and Cobalt 60.  No hospital in Chicago and the country had Computed tomography.  Dr Huckman at Presbyterian Saint Lukes acquired the first EMI CT scanner in 1973, capable only of limited head CT imaging.  The fist high field 1.5T MRI by GE was acquired by University of Illinois in1977.  Interventional radiology was performed in few centers like University of Oregon but it was not done in Chicago when we completed our residency.  The first interventional procedure was a splenic embolization that was performed by Dr Spigos in 1977 on a patient with low platelet count.

My fellow residents in alphabetical order were:

James Doran.

A sociable young man from Ireland.  Upon his graduation he moved and worked in Saint John, New Brunswick in Canada.  This move brought him close to his native Ireland on the other side of the Atlantic.

Yuichi Inoue.

A young man from Japan.  Yuichi was always available to assist if workload required additional manpower. He did a fellowship in Neuroradiology.  Upon his graduation he returned and practiced in Osaka, Japan becoming one of the best Japanese neuroradiologists.

Frank Lopez 

A most pleasant Mexican American who began his career as a family practitioner . He struggled with the effects of multiple exostosis. He  unfortunately passed at an early age due to colon cancer.

 

Dimitrios Spigos

A young man who graduated from the University Athens Greece.  Upon his graduation he served in the Greek Navy as a physician assigned in destroyers and other vessels.  When he completed his residency in 1974 he stayed at UIC as faculty and chief of Angiography. His academic career was impressive and thus he was promoted to the rank of Professor.  In 1986 he became the Chairman of Radiology at Cook County Hospital and in 1992 he became the Chairman of Radiology at the Ohio State University. 

Albert Zuska

Al received his MD from the University of Illinois. As a native Chicagoan he was always helpful to us his fellow residents from abroad.  Al started his career at Saint Anne’s Hospital in Chicago.  In 1988 he moved to Allsaints Hospital in Racine, Wisconsin.  In 2004 he was the founder of Elk Grove Radiology and he and his group practiced at Alexian Brothers Hospital in Elk Grove, Illinois.  An eponymous disease, the Zuska's disease was first described by Al's uncle Joseph Zuska at the Cleveland Clinic in 1951. The patient involved was his wife with the only cure for this disease being surgical. A recent article by Serrano et al describes the breast imaging and histopathological findings of the disease.   

During our residency we were guided by our beloved Chairman Dr. Vlastimil Capek, his secretary Maria Surowiecki-Bass and Drs. Edwin Liebner in Therapy and Virginia Patterson in Nuclear Medicine.

This post Is dedicated to my wonderful friend Al Zuska who helped me to overcome the difficulties all new immigrants experience when first arrive to a new country.  We became and stayed friends although upon completion of our residency geography kept us apart.  I cannot find enough words to thank you Al for being a good friend during our formative years.  I also dedicate the post to Gianfranco Fizzotti who graduated from University of Pavia, Italy.  He did his residency at Cook County Hospital a program affiliated with UIC.  Gianfranco became attending at Grant Medical Center in Chicago.  He return to Italy for a brief period.  Upon his return to the States he joined the staff of Radiology at CCH and became the chief of mammography. After CCH he practiced in Glendive Montana and Kellogg Idaho.  The final of move of Gianfranco and his most gracious wife Pia was to Santa Fe, NM.  I visited the Fizzottis several times during their sojourn in the wild west.