Eric George Lapthorne Bywaters (1 June 1910 – 2 April 2003) was a British physician.

Early years

Bywaters studied at the

Middlesex Hospital Medical School Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clo ...

, graduating in 1933 with a gold medal and honours in pathology, and then worked as an assistant to pathologist

Lionel Whitby Brigadier Sir Lionel Ernest Howard Whitby, CVO, MC (8 May 1895 – 24 November 1956) was a British haematologist, British Army officer and academic. He served as Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Cambridge from 1945 to 1956, M ...

Career

In 1937 he was invited by

rheumatologist Rheumatology () is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatology covers more than 100 different complex diseases, c ...

Walter Bauer Walter Bauer (; 8 August 1877 – 17 November 1960) was a German theologian, lexicographer of New Testament Greek, and scholar of the development of Early Christianity. Life Bauer was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, and raised in Marburg, ...

to work at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

and perform research on

lupus erythematosus is a collection of autoimmune diseases in which the human immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks healthy tissues. Symptoms of these diseases can affect many different body systems, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, ...

. When war broke out in 1939, Bywaters returned to Britain, but was not taken into the army because of kidney problems and instead took over

Rheumatology Rheumatology () is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatology covers more than 100 different complex diseases, c ...

at the

British Postgraduate Medical School The Royal Postgraduate Medical School (RPMS) was an independent medical school, based primarily at Hammersmith Hospital in west London. In 1988, the school merged with the Institute of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and in 1997 became part of Imperial ...

Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, London, White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the ...

. During the bombing of London, he clarified that so-called

crush syndrome Crush syndrome (also traumatic rhabdomyolysis or Bywaters' syndrome) is a medical condition characterized by major shock and kidney failure after a crushing injury to skeletal muscle. It should not be confused with crush injury, which is the c ...

was

renal failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

in wounded bomb victims who had been freed from crushing injuries. Bywater traced the condition to the release of

myoglobin Myoglobin (symbol Mb or MB) is an iron- and oxygen-binding protein found in the cardiac and skeletal muscle, skeletal Muscle, muscle tissue of vertebrates in general and in almost all mammals. Myoglobin is distantly related to hemoglobin. Compar ...

from injured muscle tissue entering the

bloodstream In vertebrates, the circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the body. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, that consists of the heart an ...

. He found a method of treatment in the form of intravenous or oral administration of

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

fluids. After the war, he built up rheumatology as an independent medical discipline. In 1947, he became director of a small hospital department for rheumatism sufferers at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in the village of

Taplow Taplow is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the left bank of the River Thames, facing Maidenhead in the neighbouring county of Berkshire, with Cippenham and Burnham to the east. It is th ...

, near

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. Immediately after the discovery of the therapeutic effect of

cortisone Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzyme corticosteroid 11-beta-dehydrogenase ...

against rheumatic fever by

Philip Showalter Hench Philip Showalter Hench (February 28, 1896 – March 30, 1965) was an American physician. Hench, along with his Mayo Clinic co-worker Edward Calvin Kendall and Swiss chemist Tadeus Reichstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medic ...

and

Edward Calvin Kendall Edward Calvin Kendall (March 8, 1886 – May 4, 1972) was an American biochemist. In 1950, Kendall was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with Swiss chemist Tadeusz Reichstein and Mayo Clinic physician Philip S. Hench, fo ...

he undertook clinical tests that confirmed this (participation in 1948). The approach of treating

rheumatic heart disease Valvular heart disease is any cardiovascular disease process involving one or more of the four valves of the heart (the aortic and mitral valves on the left side of heart and the pulmonic and tricuspid valves on the right side of heart). The ...

using cortisone, was eventually made irrelevant by the availability of antibiotic treatment, which nearly eliminated the disease in the UK and other developed countries. Bywaters used his expertise as a pathologist for accurate characterization of rheumatic diseases and to develop new methods of treatment of juvenile chronic arthritis in children and adolescents.

Recognition

In 1963 he received the

Canada Gairdner International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...

for his work studying rheumatoid arthritis, and he was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1975.

Personal life

His hobbies were gardening and painting. He was born on 1 June 1910 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and died on 2 April 2003 at age 92, in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, northwest of central London and southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe. The ...

, England

References

External links

Obituary
in ''Rheumatology'', Vol 42, 2003
Obituary
in the ''British Medical Journal''
Obituary
in ''Joint Bone Spine''
Obituary
in the ''Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London''

with Bywaters * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bywaters, Eric 20th-century British medical doctors 1910 births 2003 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Scientists from London