John J Collins

Dr. John J. Collins, Jr., who performed the first heart transplant in New England, died on Saturday, March 6 in Marion, Massachusetts. He was 76 and lived in Marion and Thomasville, Georgia. Services will be 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 13, 2010 at Laurel Hill Cemetery on Georgia St and Father Frederick Buechner will officiate.
Visiting hours will be at the Allen & Allen Funeral Home, 110 W. Hansell Street, Thomasville, GA , on Friday, March 12, between 4-8pm. A reception will immediately follow at the All Saints? Episcopal Church Fellowship Hall, 433 Hansell Street, Thomasville, GA . Relatives and friends are warmly invited.
Dr. Collins was Professor of Surgery Emeritus of the Harvard Medical School. From 1987 until his retirement in 1999, he served as vice chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women?s Hospital. He was chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery from 1970 until 1987.
In 1984, Dr. Collins, together with a surgical team from the Brigham and Women?s Hospital, performed the first heart transplant in New England. Although relatively common today, at that time such transplantation was rare. Dr. Collins? decision to remove and replace the heart of an ailing teenager was not an obvious course of action. ?We were out there alone,? Dr. Collins explained in a 1999 interview. ?Only eight established cardiac transplantation units existed at the time and results were unpredictable. But with the introduction of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine, we were confident in our team?s capability.? Through his example, Dr. Collins proved that heart transplantation was a viable treatment alternative, and inaugurated one of the most respected organ transplantation programs in the country.
In addition to his extensive contributions to the treatment of coronary artery disease, coronary artery bypass surgery, valve surgery, and cardiac transplantation, Dr. Collins took a leadership role in the international exchange of medical research and surgical advances, lecturing around the world. In 1978, he began annual visits with a surgical team from the Brigham to China, where he operated on political and civic leaders, while instructing Chinese physicians in his methods and advising on the design of the operating suites at both the People?s Liberation Army Military Hospital and the Beijing Institute of Heart, Lung, and Blood Vessel Disease in Beijing, China. In 1985, he was named honorary professor at the People?s Liberation Army Military Hospital in Beijing, China.
He is a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. He also served as chairman of the Medical Devices Committee for the American College of Cardiology and was a member of the U.S. Information Agency Medical Science Advisory Committee. For over ten years, he served as an editor of the Year Book of Cardiology, providing commentary on articles published on the subject of cardiac surgery.
Dr. Collins? professional career began with a medical degree from St. Louis University in 1957. St. Louis was also the city where he met his bride-to-be, Mary Hogan Collins. He asked her to marry him on their very first date. After Mary received her medical degree, also from St. Louis University, they wed and have been married for forty-one years.
After receiving his degree, Dr. Collins served his country as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps at the U.S. Navy Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in New London, Connecticut, where he helped to improve the safety and habitability of submarines. Determined to build a career at one of the best hospitals in the country, Dr. Collins applied to the residency program at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital now the Brigham and Women?s Hospital, entirely flexible about what specialty he would pursue. His path to Cardiac Surgery unfolded after a meeting in Chicago with Dr. Francis D. Moore, Sr. opened a research position to him in 1962, and subsequently a spot in the surgical residency. Dr. Collins went on to work under Nobel Prize winner Dr. Joseph Murray, who performed the world?s first kidney transplantation, and, subsequently, with Dr. Richard Wilson, who introduced the technique of radioisotope renography for evaluation of the function of renal transplants early after transplantation.
In 2000, the Brigham and Women?s Hospital established the John J. Collins, Jr., M.D., Cardiothoracic Surgeon Scholar Award, given annually to the resident with the highest score on the cardiothoracic ABTS in-service examination, in recognition of Dr. Collins? contributions to the cardiothoracic training program and his leadership as a surgeon scholar.
In 2002, Dr. Collins received the St. Louis University School of Medicine Alumni Merit Award, in acknowledgment of his service to others.
In 2004, his home town of Thomasville, Georgia awarded him with the Thomasville-Thomas County Pinnacle Award, honoring his extraordinary leadership and service to his community. Son of Dr. John J. Collins, Sr. and Frances Ryan Collins, and brother to Patricia Collins Droste who passed away in 1984, Dr. Collins was introduced to medicine by his own father, who was a pioneering radiologist. Trained at the Mayo clinic, Dr. John J. Collins, Sr. was the first radiologist in Thomasville and founded the radiology department at the John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital. Dr. Collins? parents encouraged their son?s burgeoning interest in medical care, as he filled the family barn with animals that needed his attention. One animal patient, a dog named ?Buzzy,? went on to be a treasured companion for many years. His parents also fostered an appreciation for education at a young age. Dr. Collins always remembered fondly the first grade classroom of Miss Daisy Neal, who helped stimulate a life-long love of learning.
In 2005 Dr. Collins received the ?Legendary Lion? recognition from Saint Leo University in St. Leo, Florida for highest achievement in his field. As a young man he had attended Saint Leo Benedictine Preparatory School.
Dr. Collins is survived by his wife, Mary Hogan Collins, M.D., his daughter, Anne Collins Goodyear and her husband Frank of Arlington, VA, his daughter Maureen Collins Beekley and her husband Todd of St. Louis, MO, his son John J. Collins, III, M.D., and his wife Jane Manners of Cambridge, MA, and his son Robert R. Collins of Houston, TX. In addition, Dr. Collins is survived by two grandchildren, Anne Elizabeth Beekley and Phineas John Manners Collins. Throughout his career, Dr. Collins made a point of nurturing his family, personally and intellectually. He enjoyed numerous excursions with them that included driving to southern Georgia, sailing off the Massachusetts coast, fishing out West, traveling to Europe and Asia, and teaching them to play golf.
At the conclusion of his career, Dr. Collins became Archives Director, on a volunteer basis, of the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women?s Hospital. Dr. Collins? goal was to document historical contributions made at the hospital in order to build a platform for future accomplishments. As he put it, ?The study of history is designed to improve our access to the future, not to enshrine the past.?
In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be directed to: John J. Collins, Jr., M.D. Cardiothoracic Surgeon Scholar Award Fund, c/o Michael Zinner, M.D., Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women?s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115.