Doris Louise Wethers (December 14, 1927 – January 28, 2019) was an American

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

known for her research on

sickle-cell disease Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red ...

. Wethers was born in

Passaic, New Jersey Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69, ...

on December 14, 1927, to William and Lillian (née Wilkinson) Wethers. She graduated magna cum laude from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

in 1948, majoring in chemistry, and earned her M.D. at

Yale University School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary t ...

in 1952 (becoming the third black woman to do so), after which Wethers spent ten years as a pediatrician in private practice. Her office was located next to the office of her father, physician William Wethers. Wethers became the first black

attending physician In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as a staff physician or supervising physician) is a physician (usually an M.D. or D.O.) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic or hospital, in the s ...

St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center Mount Sinai Morningside, formerly known as Mount Sinai St. Luke's, is a teaching hospital located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and th ...

in 1958. She served as medical director for Speedwell Services for Children from 1961 to 1973, and as director of pediatrics and opening

sickle-cell anemia Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red b ...

programs at

Knickerbocker Hospital The Knickerbocker Hospital was a 228-bed hospital in New York City located at 70 Convent Avenue, corner of West 131st Street in Harlem, serving primarily poor and immigrant patients. History Founded in 1862 as the Manhattan Dispensary, it ser ...

(1965–1973),

Sydenham Hospital Sydenham Hospital was a healthcare facility in Harlem, Manhattan, New York, which operated between 1892 and 1980. It was located at 124 Street and Manhattan Avenue. History Sydenham opened in 1892, occupying nine houses on 116th Street near 2n ...

(1969–1974), and St. Luke's Hospital (1974–1979). She received a grant for research on sickle-cell disease in 1979. She conducted research at

and conducted in-patient rounds for medical students learning about sickle-cell disease. Wethers served as director of the hospital's sickle cell program until retiring in 1999. Wethers also co-founded the Foundation for Research and Education in Sickle Cell Disease with Drs.

Yvette Fay Francis-McBarnette Yvette Francis-McBarnette (May 10, 1926 – March 28, 2016) was an American pediatrician and a pioneer in treating children with sickle cell anaemia. Early life and education Francis-McBarnette was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 10 May 1926 to sc ...

and Lila A. Fenwick. In 1987, Wethers acted as the chairwoman of a panel on sickle-cell screening commissioned by the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U ...

. The panel recommended that all newborn babies, regardless of ethnicity, be tested routinely for sickle-cell anemia; by 2006 this practice had been implemented in all fifty states. Wethers died after a stroke on January 28, 2019, in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York (state), New York, after New York City and Buffalo, New York, Buffalo. The popul ...

, aged 91.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wethers, Doris L. 1927 births American pediatricians Women pediatricians African-American physicians American women physicians 2019 deaths Place of birth missing Yale School of Medicine alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women

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