Tomisaku Kawasaki facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tomisaku Kawasaki
Kawasaki in 2005
Born	1 February 1925 Tokyo, Japan
Died	5 June 2020(2020-06-05) (aged 95) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Education	Chiba University (MD)
Occupation	Pediatrician
Years active	1948–2019
Known for	Describing Kawasaki disease
Medical career
Institutions	Japan Red Cross Medical Center, Hiroo
Sub-specialties	Pediatrics

Tomisaku Kawasaki (born February 7, 1925 – died June 5, 2020) was a Japanese doctor who specialized in treating children. He was known as a pediatrician. In the 1960s, he was the first to describe a new illness. This illness is now called Kawasaki disease after him.

Kawasaki disease is a serious condition. It is one of the main causes of heart problems in children around the world. These heart problems are not present at birth but develop later.

Early Life and Education

Tomisaku Kawasaki was born on February 1, 1925. He grew up in the Asakusa area of Tokyo, Japan. He was the youngest of seven children in his family.

As a young boy, he loved plants and fruit. He was very interested in how new types of plants came to be. He first planned to study plants in college. However, his mother wanted him to become a doctor. So, he decided to study medicine instead. He went to Chiba University and finished his medical studies in 1948.

Career as a Doctor

After graduating, Dr. Kawasaki spent a year training in Chiba. He chose to become a pediatrician because he enjoyed working with children. In those days, doctors in training in Japan did not get paid. His family was having money problems. So, his advisor suggested he take a paid job.

He started working at the Japan Red Cross Medical Center in Hiroo, Tokyo. He worked there as a pediatrician for more than 40 years.

Discovering a New Illness

For 10 years, Dr. Kawasaki studied different medical cases. In 1961, he saw a 4-year-old boy with many strange symptoms. The boy had a fever, rashes, and swollen lymph nodes. Dr. Kawasaki called this "acute febrile mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome." This long name means a sudden feverish illness with skin and lining problems, and swollen glands.

In 1962, he saw a second child with the same symptoms. He then found five more similar cases. He presented his findings at a meeting of Japanese children's doctors. But other doctors did not believe it was a new disease. They thought it was just a mix of other known illnesses.

Getting the Word Out

Dr. Kawasaki kept collecting cases. After he had 50 patients, he wrote a long paper about the illness. It was published in a Japanese medical journal in 1967. His paper included detailed drawings of the rashes. Other doctors in Japan soon started seeing similar cases.

In 1970, the Japanese government set up a research group. This group studied the illness Dr. Kawasaki had found. They confirmed it was a new disease. They also found that it mainly affected the arteries (blood vessels) in the body.

In 1973, a doctor found a link between the disease and heart problems. This happened during an autopsy of a child who had died from the illness. The child had blocked heart arteries.

Dr. Kawasaki led a committee that published its findings in an important journal called Pediatrics in 1974. This was the first time the disease was described in English. It brought worldwide attention to the illness. People said Dr. Kawasaki was like "part Sherlock Holmes and part Charles Dickens" because of his mystery-solving skills and clear descriptions.

Later Years and Legacy

Dr. Kawasaki retired from his hospital work in 1990. He then started the Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Center. He led this center until 2019. He was its honorary chairman until he passed away.

In 1992, Kawasaki disease was officially added to a major textbook for pediatricians. This showed that the disease was now recognized around the world. By 2007, Dr. Kawasaki estimated that over 200,000 cases of the disease had been found in Japan. He himself never called the disease by his own name. He thought its original name was too long.

Personal Life and Death

Dr. Kawasaki was married to Reiko Kawasaki, who was also a pediatrician. She passed away in 2019. Dr. Kawasaki died on June 5, 2020, at the age of 95. He passed away from natural causes. He was survived by his two daughters and one son. Many medical journals around the world wrote tributes to him after his death.

Awards

Dr. Kawasaki received many important awards for his work:

• Bering Kitasato Award, 1986
• Takeda Medical Award, 1987
• Health Culture Award, 1987
• Japan Medical Association Medical Award, 1988
• Asahi Prize, 1989
• Japan Academy Prize, 1991
• Tokyo Cultural Award, 1996
• Japan Pediatric Society Prize, 2006

He also had a special meeting with the Emperor and Empress of Japan at the Imperial Palace. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government also honored him.