A Luncheon Honoring John L. Ochsner, M.D Chairman Emeritus, Department of Surgery Ochsner Clinic  Thursday, February 24, 2005 12:00 Noon (cash bar at 11:30 a.m.) Plimsoll Club, 30th Floor, WTC (Free validated parking in the WTC Garage) Advance Registration Required

The Thomas F. Cunningham award was established in 1945 by the World Trade Center’s predecessor organization, International House, and is presented in recognition of outstanding service toward greater social, educational, economic, cultural and political relationships and understanding between the United States and the countries of Latin America.

John L. Ochsner, M.D.

Ever since the founding of the Ochsner Clinic in 1942, emphasis has been made on attracting Central and South American patients. At one time, before the loss of most direct airline service from New Orleans to the region, 12 percent of the patients coming to the Clinic were from Central and South America. A study was made which determined that more money was spent by these patients in New Orleans than at Mardi Gras, the Sugar Bowl and Spring Fiesta combined. This was because the Clinic operations were 325 days a year and the people from other countries who came to New Orleans for medical treatment also put substantial dollars into the local economy for travel, hotels, shopping and other expenditures.

Dr. John Ochsner has had a distinguished national and international career as a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon with the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans and as a clinical professor with Tulane University School of Medicine. He has served as President (1997) and Chairman (1998) of the World Trade Center of New Orleans and as an officer of many other local civic and educational organizations, including the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation.

Dr. Ochsner has been President of the majority of medical societies to which he belongs and is the only person in history to serve as President of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery, President of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, and Chairman of the Board of Thoracic Surgery (the three most prestigious cardiovascular surgical honors). In the Gulf South area, Dr. Ochsner was the first to do practically every heart operation, including valves, AC bypasses, and transplants (heart, lung and liver). There are some procedures which he was first to perform in this country and abroad.

Dr. John Ochsner exemplifies the spirit and the substance of the Thomas F. Cunningham Award in terms of his professional and personal commitment and accomplishments in Latin America. For example, he has operated on hundreds of patients from Central and South America. He has lectured and operated in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He performed the first open-heart surgery in El Salvador and Honduras, and initiated coronary artery surgery in Chile.

Dr. Ochsner served as Secretary-General and President of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, and President of the Pan American Medical Association, as well as a Trustee. He is an honorary member of the Chilean Surgical Society, the University of Chile School of Medicine, Ecuadorian School of Medicine, Medical School of Yucatan, and Medical School of Leon. He was on the editorial board of the journal "Revista Argentina de Angiography", and on the Board of Directors of the Honduras-United States Development Council. He received the Medal of Honor from Ecuador in 1981, that country’s highest honor. Dr. Ochsner is an honorary citizen of the City of Guayaquil and recipient of an honorary degree from the Universidad Delgado in San Salvador.

Past recipients of the Cunningham Award include:

Capt. J.W. Clark

Dr. Eamon M. Kelly

Charles W. Robinson and Samuel G. Robinson

Hon. Robert Livingston

Father James Carter

Dr. Doris Zemurray Stone

Dr. Richard E. Greenleaf

Harvey C. Koch

G. Frank Purvis, Jr.

Dr. Alton Ochsner

Theodore Brent

Rudolf S. Hecht

Samuel Zemurray

William G. Zetzmann

Hon. DeLesseps S. Morrison

Hon. Hale Boggs

J. Peter Grace

Dr. Milton Eisenhower

Juan Trippe

Amb. Ellsworth Bunker

Hon. Nelson Rockefeller

Henry J. Kaiser

William Larimer Mellon

Cost: $40 per person.  Tables of 8 can be reserved for $320.
(To reserve a table, call (504) 529-1601, ext. 222, or e-mail scoolidge@wtcno.org)

If you are a WTC member, the registration fee can be charged to your account number noted on the registration form. 

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