Professor Abraham Leo Schamroth

Schamroth CL. Leo Schamroth (1924-1988): his life and work. Journal of Medical Biography 1996:125-128 He was born in Antwerp, Belgium on 2nd June 1924. At the age of 5, his family emigrated to South Africa. He was schooled in Johannesburg. He studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, qualified in 1948 and did his internship at the ‘Non-European Hospital’ in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. As specialist registration was not available in South Africa, he travelled to the United Kingdom and wrote his specialist examinations, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of both Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1952. Upon his return to South African, he joined the staff at the Coronation Hospital and subsequently the Department of Medicine at Baragwanath Hospital (now Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital). These hospitals catered for the non European communites of Johannesburg and environs. He became the head of the department of Medicine at Baragwanath in 1972. He inherited a virtually defunct department which he built up against formidable odds and extraordinary, frustrating difficulties, into a thriving academic unit. He remained at Baragwanath until his premature retirement in 1987. He was a world authority in electrocardiography. He had close to 300 peer reviewed articles published in the international literature. He wrote six textbooks. His ‘Introduction to Electrocardiography” went to eight editions over the course of more than 30 years. It was translated into Spanish, Greek, Italian, Turkish and Japanese.His academic achievements and his awards and honours were innumerable. He worked for the upliftment of the downtrodden. He received the Claude Harris Leon Award of Merit for his internationally recognised contribution to medical research in the field of electrocardiology and for his dedicated work as Professor of Medicine and Chief Physician at Baragwanath Hospital which catered for the people of Soweto. Amongst his greatest honours was an international prize for medical research by Les Amis du Commerce et la Persévérance Reunis of Antwerp Belgium. He worked tirelessly to correct the incorrect dismissal of a former professor of Medicine of the university, William Craib by the Rockerfeller Foundation in 1925. Leo’s crusade for justice eventually resulted in the vindication of Professor Craib in 1976, and belatedly an apology from the Foundation and due international recognition Unfortunately ill-health was to plague Leo in his latter years and he died in May 1988.

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/Krakow/Families/Schamroth.html

Schamroth CL. Leo Schamroth (1924-1988): his life and work. Journal of Medical Biography 1996:125-128 He was born in Antwerp, Belgium on 2nd June 1924. At the age of 5, his family emigrated to South Africa. He was schooled in Johannesburg. He studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, qualified in 1948 and did his internship at the ‘Non-European Hospital’ in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. As specialist registration was not available in South Africa, he travelled to the United Kingdom and wrote his specialist examinations, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of both Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1952. Upon his return to South African, he joined the staff at the Coronation Hospital and subsequently the Department of Medicine at Baragwanath Hospital (now Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital). These hospitals catered for the non European communites of Johannesburg and environs. He became the head of the department of Medicine at Baragwanath in 1972. He inherited a virtually defunct department which he built up against formidable odds and extraordinary, frustrating difficulties, into a thriving academic unit. He remained at Baragwanath until his premature retirement in 1987. He was a world authority in electrocardiography. He had close to 300 peer reviewed articles published in the international literature. He wrote six textbooks. His ‘Introduction to Electrocardiography” went to eight editions over the course of more than 30 years. It was translated into Spanish, Greek, Italian, Turkish and Japanese.His academic achievements and his awards and honours were innumerable. He worked for the upliftment of the downtrodden. He received the Claude Harris Leon Award of Merit for his internationally recognised contribution to medical research in the field of electrocardiology and for his dedicated work as Professor of Medicine and Chief Physician at Baragwanath Hospital which catered for the people of Soweto. Amongst his greatest honours was an international prize for medical research by Les Amis du Commerce et la Persévérance Reunis of Antwerp Belgium. He worked tirelessly to correct the incorrect dismissal of a former professor of Medicine of the university, William Craib by the Rockerfeller Foundation in 1925. Leo’s crusade for justice eventually resulted in the vindication of Professor Craib in 1976, and belatedly an apology from the Foundation and due international recognition Unfortunately ill-health was to plague Leo in his latter years and he died in May 1988.

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/Krakow/Families/Schamroth.html