Mildred Stahlman, MD

Dr. Stahlman revolutionized the care of high-risk newborns by creating the world's first modern neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Vanderbilt.

After earning her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in 1943, she earned her medical degree from Vanderbilt in 1946. She served internships in Cleveland and Boston, was assistant resident on the pediatric service at Vanderbilt, an exchange fellow at the Royal Caroline Institute in Stockholm, and a cardiac resident at La Rabida Sanitarium in Chicago. She became an instructor in pediatrics at Vanderbilt in 1951.

Her initial research was in pediatric cardiology, but in October 1961, she was confronted with a life or death situation when a baby girl with severe hyaline membrane disease was born. The girl's parents gave permission for a bold experiment to help their daughter breathe using a respirator that had been modified for a premature baby. The ability to monitor the respirator's effect on blood oxygen with umbilical catheters made respiratory therapy possible.

This interest in the respiratory problems of premature newborns and a National Institutes of Health grant led Dr. Stahlman to put into place the first modern NICU in the world. She was also involved in initiating the regionalization program of high-risk newborn care in Tennessee in 1973, and she started Vanderbilt's Neonatology Fellowship Training Program.