Teams from Europe and U.S.
Leukemia Experts Gather Here, June 3-11
According to an old truism, too much
of a good thing isn't always good.
As far as medical science is concerned,
white blood cells are a perfect example.
These little structures, which float around
in everyone's blood and are called
leukocytes, gobble up germs at an
amazing rate. They are usually invaluable
in keeping man from getting sick.
Unfortunately, sometimes white cells
reproduce themselves too fast. The result
is a cancer of the blood known as
leukemia. There is no sure cure for it, and
although researchers have been making
i
rapid progress combating it in recent
years, it still usually leads to death.
In an attempt to discover new
techniques for diagnosing and studying
leukemia which will be more informative,
the world's foremost authorities on the
serological detection of the disease will
meet at the medical center for a workshop
and conference, June 3-11.
Ten teams will participate in the
workshop, including two from France
and one from the Netherlands and seven
from the United States.
'The purpose of the workshop, which
is the first of its kind ever held, is to bring
together all of the research groups
involved in the serological detection of
leukemia in order that each group can
test blood cells from the same selected
patients under controlled conditions,"
said Dr. Richard S. Metzgar, professor of
immunology at Duke and coordinator of
the event. Drs. T. Mohanakumar and
Donald S. Miller are co-hosts for the
workshop.
Using their own immunological
methods and working independently,
each team will attempt to distinguish cells
of leukemic patients from celltof normal
donors and patients with other forms of
cancer, Metzgar said.
The studies will be "blind" in that
researchers won't know the nature of the
diesease of the patient being studied.
Blood from patients at St. Jude's
Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.,
Philadelphia Children's Hospital, the
Roswell Park Memorial Institute Qf
Buffalo, N.Y., the Sloan Kettering Cancer
Institute in New York City and Duke will
be examined by each of the different
(Continued on page 2)
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VOLUME 21, NUMBER 22
MAY 31,1974
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Focus on Helen Kaiser
P. T. Pioneer Reminisces
About 'Good Old Days’
■mm
A GIFT OF RE-
MEMBRANCE-\Nhen
former physical therapy
director Helen Kaiser
retired from Duke after
27 years of service she
received a generous gift
from her fellow
colleagues and friends.
Part of this gift
afforded her the
opportunity to travel to
New Zealand and
Australia. With the
other part, she decided
to plant a rose garden
near her home in
remembrance of her
years spent at Duke.
(Photo by Dale Moses)
After 16 Years Veronica
Gets Degree in Dietetics
When Veronica Gremillion was
principal of the Holy Ghost School in
Stann Creek, British Honduras, she used
to keep a machete under her desk in her
office.
The long knife, which the people of
the area use for diopping everything from
bananas and coconuts to sea turtle meat
and poisonous snakes, wasn't there for
disciplining the children.
Instead, the then 24-year old educator
used it for protection when irrate parents
came to call.
The parents, who were Carib Indians
and the descendents of slaves
shipwrecked during colonial times, must
have been staunch supporters of learning
because they didn't take kindly to their
children being sent home ^arly or
expelled for misbehaving.
Although she never had occasion to
use the wicked instrument, it did help her
maintain the courage of her convictions
when uncomfortably graphic threats
followed all the pleading the parents
cared to make.
Miss Gremillion is presently a senior
food server in the Dietary Department at
Duke Hospital. More than this, however,
she is a highly motivated individual who
knows what she wants and knows where
she's going.
She is also the first member of the
hospital's dietetics staff to earn a
Bachelor of Science degree in foods and
nutrition through Duke's Paths for
Employee Progress program (P.E.P.).
This program was initiated in 1970
and is headed by Human Development
Director Howard N. Lee, who also is
mayor of Chapel Hill. It offers university
employees the opportunity to take high
school and college completion courses
while working a reduced weekly schedule.
The university pays tuition costs and
provides a supplemental income to the
student for as long as he or she progresses
(Continuedon page 2)
"My idea of a poorly trained physical
therapist is that you'd better let nature
take its course rather than receive help
from an incompetent clinician,"
emphasized Helen Kaiser, founder and
former director of Duke's Physical
Therapy (PT) Department for 25 years.
A woman who has devoted over 50
years of her life to the' growth and
development of physical therapy as a
profession, Miss Kaiser joined the Duke
staff in 1943 as director of PT.
In the beginning there were three
people in the PT department who were
handling approximately 25 patients a
week. When Miss Kaiser retired in 1970,
the department had grown to over 25
members who were serving 130 patients a
week and graduating 22 students a year
from its graduate program.
For Miss Kaiser, her work in
establishing both clinical and educational
programs in PT at Duke was always a
challenge.
"At the time I came to Duke," she
explained, "the army was training
'six-month wonders' to fill the role of
PTs. While the army had its hands full, I
had my hands full at Duke, expanding
our department's services so that we
could cater to all types of patients and
not only those with arthritis and
fractures."
Miss Kaiser is described by her former
students and colleagues as a hard worker
who had to fight many battles to develop
the department into what it is today.
"She was always ready to work for
something she believed in," said Grace
Horton, a former student of Miss Kaiser's
who presently works in PT as an assistant
professor.
"She never fought for anything in our
department or the hospital," Mrs. Horton
continued, "without being fully informed
of all the angles and facets of the problem
at hand. She would go into the battle and
ask for the whole cake, but would then
come out of it, graciously accepting her
quarter."
During her first years at Duke, Miss
Kaiser worked with the original
department heads of the university.
"These were the men who had been
chosen to head their departments because
they showed great promise and were
secure in their own jobs because they
were good," Miss Kaiser noted.
It was at this time during World War
II, Miss Kaiser recounts, that many of the
department heads were losing their young
assistants who had gone off to war.
These department heads, like Dr.
Wilburt C. Davison, pediatrics; Dr. Joseph
E. Markee, anatomy; and Dr. Richard
Lyman, psychiatry, were entrusted with
the responsibility of treating patients and
at the same time conducting classes. "I
don't see how they managed then, but I
guess we were all in the same boat," Miss
Kaiser added.
It was back in those good old days
when Duke Hospital was just getting on
its feet that Miss Kaiser fondly
remembers the close relationships that
were formed. "We always functioned as a
team and as a matter of fact," she
emphasized, "I guess you could say we
were like one big happy family-working
for and with each other."
To illustrate this bond of comradeship.
Miss Kaiser recalls the time she was in
desperate need of a faculty member to
teach her PT students physics.
Both she and Dr. Lenox Baker, then
chief of the Division of Orthopaedic
Surgery, called upon Dr. Walter McKinley
Nielsen, chairman of the Physics
Department. Bearing in mind that Dr.
Nielsen was functioning without young
assistants, he quite willingly offered to
help Miss Kaiser but outlined for her his
own responsibilities.
"What, with his time being spent
conducting classes for the Navy, Duke
undergraduates and graduates," Miss
Kaiser remarked, "Dr. Baker and I came
away from our meeting saying to him,
well, if there is any way we can help you,
please let us know."
This type of cooperation. Miss Kaiser
emphasized, was what she constantly
experienced throughout her early years at
Duke.
"One of the happy relationships at
(Continued on page 3)