Valentino D. B. Mazzia (February 17, 1922 – March 10, 1999) was an American physician who served as chairman of the department of

anesthesiology Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, ...

at the

New York University School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

and was a pioneer in the forensic analysis of deaths occurring during surgical procedures. He testified in many criminal cases about the use and presence of anesthesia products in cases of death. Mazzia was born on February 17, 1922, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and graduated from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1943. He attended

earning his

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

degree in 1950. He was on the faculty of

Cornell University Medical School The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York (state), New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is af ...

in the 1950s as chaired the anesthesiology department at New York University starting in the 1960s.Severo, Richard
"Valentino Mazzia, 77, Student Of Deaths Under Anesthesia"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', March 21, 1999. Accessed October 21, 2009. Starting in 1961, he worked at the

New York City Medical Examiner's Office The Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York (OCME) is a department within the city government that investigates cases of persons who die within New York City from criminal violence; by casualty or by suicide; suddenly, when in appa ...

under Drs.

Michael Baden Michael M. Baden (born July 27, 1934) is an American physician and board-certified forensic pathologist known for his work investigating high-profile deaths and as the host of HBO's ''Autopsy''. Baden was the chief medical examiner of the C ...

and Milton Helpern. Baden credited Mazzia with going on to "create the specialty of forensic anesthesiology" describing how Mazzia would go "to the scene, which was the operating room, to see if something went wrong", closing off the room for investigation and basing his judgments on his findings on the spot. He left the medical examiner's office in the early 1970s. He then spent two years as director of anesthesiology at Los Angeles County-Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital and practiced medicine in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. Adding legal education to his medical training, Mazzia earned a degree in law from

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and in 1978 was awarded a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from the University of Denver School of Law. Thereafter he worked extensively in

medical malpractice Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, deviates from standards in their profession, thereby causing injury or death to a patient. The negligen ...

cases. He also served over the years as a consultant in a number of murder cases related to anesthesia, including the 1978 "Dr. X" murder trial of

Mario Jascalevich The "Dr. X" killings were a series of suspicious deaths by curare poisoning, in 1966 at a Bergen County, New Jersey hospital. A newspaper investigation during the mid-1960s led to the indictment of an Argentina-born physician, Mario Enrique Jascalev ...

, who was charged with killing surgical patients at Riverdell Hospital with

curare Curare ( /kʊˈrɑːri/ or /kjʊˈrɑːri/; ''koo-rah-ree'' or ''kyoo-rah-ree'') is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South ...

, a powerful

muscle relaxant A muscle relaxant is a drug that affects skeletal muscle function and decreases the muscle tone. It may be used to alleviate symptoms such as muscle spasms, pain, and hyperreflexia. The term "muscle relaxant" is used to refer to two major therapeu ...

. Earlier, Dr. Helpern had brought Mazzia in to testify in the murder trial of Dr. Carl A. Coppolino, who was accused of using succinylcholine chloride to kill his victims.Mellius, Richard
"Scientific Sleuthing" Key To Coppolino Case"
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'', April 30, 1967. Accessed October 21, 2009. A resident of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, Mazzia died due to

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

of the liver at age 77 on March 10, 1999, at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Baden indicated that the cirrhosis resulted from a case of

Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...

that he had contracted while working as an anesthesiologist. He was survived by his wife, as well as three children from a previous marriage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzia, Valentino 1922 births 1999 deaths Physicians from New York (state) City College of New York alumni Deaths from cirrhosis New York University Grossman School of Medicine alumni People from Manhattan Sturm College of Law alumni USC Gould School of Law alumni American people of Italian descent