John Joseph Shea Jr. (September 4, 1924 – February 8, 2015) was an American medical doctor, professor and surgeon. He attended Christian Brothers High School, Memphis, Tennessee, the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

and

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 ...

. He performed the first successful reconstructive

stapedectomy A stapedectomy is a surgical procedure of the middle ear performed in order to improve hearing. If the stapes footplate is fixed in position, rather than being normally mobile, the result is a conductive hearing loss. There are two major causes ...

in May, 1956. The patient was a 54-year-old housewife with

conductive hearing loss Conductive hearing loss (CHL) occurs when there is a problem transferring sound waves anywhere along the pathway through the outer ear, tympanic membrane (eardrum), or middle ear (ossicles). If a conductive hearing loss occurs in conjunction with ...

so severe that she could no longer hear at all, even with a hearing aid. Shea removed the

stapes The ''stapes'' or stirrup is a bone in the middle ear of humans and other animals which is involved in the conduction of sound vibrations to the inner ear. This bone is connected to the oval window by its annular ligament, which allows the foo ...

, covered the oval window opening with a vein graft removed from the back of the patient's hand, and inserted a prosthesis to replace the diseased stapes bone. The patient's hearing was restored and she heard well for the rest of her life. He pioneered numerous techniques in the treatment of hearing loss and dizziness, developed many instruments and prostheses to restore hearing, and worked to advance the knowledge and understanding of the treatment of ear disease. He was a clinical professor in the Ear, Nose and Throat Departments of the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

, the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

, the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

and

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

Family

Shea was married (1949) to the former Gwyn Cooke Rainer, 1930-2009 (later Mrs.

Shelby Foote Shelby Dade Foote Jr. (November 17, 1916 – June 27, 2005) was an American writer, historian and journalist. Although he primarily viewed himself as a novelist, he is now best known for his authorship of '' The Civil War: A Narrative'', a three ...

), with whom he had two children; then (1964) to the former

Lynda Lee Mead Lynda Lee Shea (née Mead; born April 17, 1939) is an American businesswoman and beauty pageant titleholder who was Miss Mississippi 1959 and Miss America 1960. Shea attended Natchez High School and the University of Mississippi, where she was ...

( Miss America, 1960), the couple had three children. He died on February 8, 2015.

References

External links

Shea clinic home pageJohn Shea Blog on Stapedectomy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shea, John J. Jr. 2015 deaths People from Memphis, Tennessee University of Notre Dame alumni Harvard Medical School alumni 1924 births American otolaryngologists Tulane University faculty University of Mississippi faculty University of Tennessee faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty