Dr. Julius Hess

Class of 1895 Julius Hess graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in 1899. He interned at Alexian Brother’s Hospital in Chicago and later studied at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and hospitals in Germany and Austria. In the ensuing years he was on the staff at Englewood Hospital, the Sarah Morris Hospital which was the children’s hospital of Michael Reese and on the faculty at Rush Medical College, Northwestern University Medical School, and the University of Illinois before becoming Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of Staff at Cook Community Hospital. Hess was a prolific writer, making many contributions to medical journals as well as publishing five books on infant care, and inventing what became the precursor to the modern infant incubator. In 1914 Dr. Hess designed a heated bed for premature infants, in 1922 he designed a transport incubator, and in 1934 his incubator design was converted into a chamber for the provision of oxygen. In 1922 he published the first American text dealing solely with the care of premature and congenitally diseased infants, and also established the first premature infant station in the United States. He directed the infant station for 30 years, giving care to 9022 premature infants, providing a previously unheard of 73% survival rate, saving children that would not have survived without his intervention. In 1952 the American Academy of Pediatrics presented Dr. Hess with their prestigious Borden Award in recognition of his many contributions and achievements in the care of premature infants. Dr. Hess is widely acknowledged as the Father of American neonatology.