Soma Weiss (January 27, 1898 – January 31, 1942) was a Hungarian-born American physician.
Early life
Soma Weiss was born in 1898 in
Bistriţa,
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
,
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He studied
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
and
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. Immediately after the end of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he immigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and qualified in medicine in 1923. He was from Jewish ancestry.
Ernest Sachs Jr., a neurosurgeon who was
Goldman Sachs's founder
Marcus Goldman
Marcus Goldman (born Marcus Goldmann; December 9, 1821 – July 20, 1904) was a Jewish American investment banker, businessman, and financier. He was the founder of Goldman Sachs, which has since become one of the world's largest investment b ...
's great-grandson, was Weiss's cousin.
Career
After initially working at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, Weiss moved to
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
(HMS) in 1925, and in 1939 became physician-in-chief at
Peter Bent Brigham
Peter Bent Brigham (1807–1877) was an American millionaire businessman, restaurateur, real estate trader, and director of the Fitchburg Railroad. He is best known as a philanthropist for his initial endowment of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital an ...
Hospital (which merged to form
Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1980) and Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic at HMS.
[ He published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, the majority relating to ]cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, ...
and pharmacology.
Death
Weiss died suddenly on January 31, 1942, four days after turning 43.[ He had developed a sudden, excruciating and enduring headache one day, which he recognized as a ruptured ]intracranial aneurysm
An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a brain aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel.
Aneurysms in the posterior circula ...
; he made it home, where he was briefly cared for by medical staff he had trained, but soon died.[
]
Legacy
In April 1940, Weiss worked with his students, which included his cousin (and future neurosurgeon) Ernest Sachs Jr., to launch the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Undergraduate Research Assembly; after Weiss's death, it was renamed the Soma Weiss Student Research Day.COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts
The COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts is part of an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The first confirmed case was reported on February 1, 2020, and the number of cases began increasi ...
) on 16 March 2020, the awards included:
Medical achievements
* He was the first to describe the carotid sinus hypersensitivity syndrome
* In 1925, with Hermann Blumgart performed the first application of in-vivo circulating blood radioactive tracers
* In 1929, with G. Kenneth Mallory described hemorrhagic lacerations of the cardiac orifice of the stomach due to vomiting: Mallory-Weiss syndrome
References
External links
Soma Weiss papers, 1922-1957. GA 92. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Soma
Cornell University faculty
Harvard Medical School faculty
American cardiologists
1898 births
1942 deaths
People from Bistrița
Hungarian emigrants to the United States
Deaths from intracranial aneurysm