James Bloodworth Jr. facts for kids

James Morgan Bartow Bloodworth Jr. (born February 21, 1925 – died September 22, 2006) was an American doctor. He was also a pathologist, which means he studied diseases. Dr. Bloodworth was a very important researcher who focused on diabetes. He was born in Atlanta and later passed away in Madison, Wisconsin. His father, J. M. Bartow Bloodworth, Sr., was a lawyer.

Dr. Bloodworth's Education Journey

James Bloodworth went to college at Emory University in Atlanta and Stanford University in California. He earned his science degree from Stanford in 1945. After that, he became a medical doctor, getting his M.D. degree from Emory University in 1948. He then completed an internship in New York City and continued his medical training at Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio.

A Career Helping Others

Dr. Bloodworth started teaching at OSU in 1953. In 1962, he moved to the University of Wisconsin Medical School (UWMS) in Madison. He worked there for the rest of his career and became a full professor. He also led the laboratory service at the William Shainline Middleton Veterans Hospital in Madison until 1989.

When a new University of Wisconsin Hospital opened in 1979, Dr. Bloodworth became the director of the combined autopsy service for both hospitals. An autopsy is a medical examination done after someone dies to find out the cause of death. He became a national expert on using autopsies to check the quality of medical care. He also advised many county coroners (officials who investigate deaths) in Wisconsin.

Involvement in Medical Groups

Dr. Bloodworth was a very active member of several important medical groups. These included the American Society for Experimental Pathology and the American Diabetes Association. He even served as the president of the Wisconsin Society of Pathologists from 1978 to 1980.

Teaching and Research

Dr. Bloodworth spent a lot of time teaching medical students about diseases of the heart, kidneys, and endocrine system (which makes hormones). He also taught doctors who were training to become pathologists. To help doctors make more accurate diagnoses, he brought electron microscopy to the UWMS. This uses a special microscope to see tiny details.

Dr. Bloodworth's main research interest was diabetes. He also studied other hormone problems and kidney diseases. He gave many talks at national meetings about these topics. He used special studies to look at changes in the pancreas and blood vessels of people with diabetes. He also studied animals to understand how diabetes affects the kidneys.

Working with his colleagues, he focused on what causes and how to prevent microangiopathy, a problem with small blood vessels in diabetes. His studies on diabetic retinopathy (a serious eye problem caused by diabetes) helped explain how it leads to vision loss. His experiments showed that carefully controlling blood sugar could prevent blood vessel damage in diabetes.

For his important work in endocrinology, Dr. Bloodworth received the special Eli Lilly Research Award in 1963 from the American Diabetes Association. He also edited and wrote much of the first textbook about the pathology of the endocrine system in 1968. This book was updated several times and is still used today.

Dr. Bloodworth's Family Life

Dr. Bloodworth married Jean Stone in 1947, and they had three daughters. In 1972, he married Joan Wiltgen, and they had two more daughters. He retired in 1995. Dr. Bloodworth passed away in September 2006 from heart disease in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is buried. He was also survived by his younger brother, A. W. Franklin Bloodworth, who was a retired lawyer.