Dr. David Hume was born in Muskegon, Michigan in 1917 and received his M.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1943. While in Chicago, he worked under Dr. William Bloom in the Department of Anatomy on hypo-thalamic-pituitary-renal interrelationships. Subsequent to this he did his surgical training in Boston at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, punctuated by time spent in the Navy and two years in the navy and two years in the laboratory as a Harvey Cushing Fellow.
In the laboratory began experimental work on renal transplantation. In 1951, after completing the chief residency at Peter Brent Brigham, he became Director of the Laboratory for Surgical Research at Harvard. In that year and the next, in conjunction with Dr. John Merrill, of the Renal Physiology Division of the Department of Medicine, he carried out nine cadaver donor renal homotransplants in patients with terminal renal failure. Four of these patients were the first organ transplants known in man to show sufficient function to maintain the life of the host, and one untreated transplant functioned for six months. Attempts were made at immunosuppresion with corticosteroids, but the supply was too limited to continue the treatment for more than a few days.
From 1953-1955 he was again on duty in the Navy stationed at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda. Here the work continued on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal relationships and renal transplantation.
After returning to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for a year, he went The Medical College of Virginia in Richmond in 1956 as the Stuart McGuire Professor of Surgery and Chairman of Surgery and Chairman of the Department. The first twin transplant was done here in 1957, and the current homotransplant program was begun in 1962.
Honors include Francis Amory award of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962(co-recipient), outstanding Harvard alumnus of the State of Virginia in 1968, Valentine award by the New York Academy of Medicine in 1970, Humanitarian award by the Richmond Chapter of Hadassah in 1971, and the Distinguished Service Medal from the University of Chicago in 1971. In January 1972, Dr. Hume received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Modern Medicine Magazine. Dr. Hume's mentor , Dr. Francis Moore, termed him as "restless genius." His compulsion to seek excellence influenced and inspired many of his students and colleagues. He would not take no for an answer, and he tried to find newer and better methods in research and clinical care.
He was an excellent teacher; a man who set an example and taught by doing. He created a free, stimulating atmosphere for students, fellows, and associates. His discourse was precise, concise, and lucid, be it written or spoken. He was a Renaissance man with a depth of intellect and wide ranging interests from surgery, medicine, and the world as a whole.
Dr. Hume met his untimely death while piloting a plane that flew into a mountain on May 19, 1973.
References
VCU Health System. Retrieved August 7, 2007 from http://www.vcuhealth.org/?id=427&sid=1.