As a controversial proposal to rename the federal riding of “Westmount-Ville-Marie” to “Wilder Penfield” is denounced by many Montrealers, Global News takes a quick look at what’s in a name. Just who was Dr. Wilder Penfield?
Born: Wilder Graves Penfield on January 26, 1891 in Spokane, Washington
Studied: Princeton University, Oxford University, Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland
Famous as: A neurosurgeon
Canadian connection: While studying in England, Penfield stayed with William Osler, a Canadian professor at Oxford, after being wounded when a German torpedo blew up the ship he was on when crossing the English Channel to work at a Red Cross hospital in France. More than ten years later, he joined the faculty at McGill University in 1928 and became a neurosurgeon at the Royal Victoria and Montreal General hospitals.
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Known for: His “Montreal procedure” – a surgical treatment for severe epilepsy where he removed brain tissue in the location of seizure activity. It was featured in a Heritage Minute, making famous his patient’s remark: “I can smell burnt toast!” when he stimulates the seizure-producing part of her brain.
Legacy: In 1934, he founded the Montreal Neurological Institute with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Quebec government, the city of Montreal and private donors.
Little known fact: Penfield supported bilingualism for children and co-founded the Vanier Institute of the Family, which he hoped would “promote and guide education in the home – man’s first classroom.”
Awards: Companion of the Order of Canada; Lister Medal, Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; Order of Merit; Order of St Michael and St George
Died: April 5, 1976 in Montreal.
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