Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 2014 — Blaisdell reflects on a lifetime in medicine [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Blaisdell reflects on a lifetime in medicine

As the Umversi.ty o/Hawai.'i. JolmA. Bums School ofMedicine prepares to mark i.ts 50th anniversary next year, we caught up with Dr. Ri.chard Kekuni. Blai.sdell, who served as the schooVs first ehainnan. Blai.sdell, whose wide-rangi.ng careerpath i.ncludes sti.nts i.n Chi.cago and post-World War II Japan, has heen at the forefront of numerous mi.lestones i.n Native Hawaiian heahh, such as the landmark E 01 a Mau heahh needs study i.n 1985, whi.eh helped lead to the passage of the federal Nati.ve Hawaiian Heahli Care Improvement Act i.n 1988. By Cheryl Corbiell Dr. Richard Kekuni Akana Blaisdell has been a pillar in Hawai'i's medical profession for more than six decades. "He strengthened heahh care in Hawai'i by incorporating the best of western medicine and Hawaiian healing

traditions," said Dr. Emmett Aluli, a member of the first graduating class of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, in the mid-1970s. In 1925, a baby boy, fondly called Kekuni, was born in Honolulu to Marguerite Nameleonalani Piltz and James Keali'ikauahi Akana, who was an accountant and a heaeh boy. "If you look at the famous photo of the Waiklkl Beach Boys with the Duke at the end nearest the camera, you ean see my father, James Akana, at the end of the line," Blaisdell, 88, said in an email.

The young Kekuni was raised on the slopes of Diamond Head. "My Tūtū Maria Pu'uohau was raised on the corner of 'Ōhua street and Kalākaua. Tūtū Maria was piha (pure) Kanaka Maoli - hānai by the queen. She kept a painting of the Hawaiian flag behind a door in her house. The painting, Ku 'u Hae Aloha, was a gift from the queen. Today that painting has a prominent plaee in my Nu'uanu home," said Blaisdell. In 1940, Blaisdell's mother married William Kaha'i Blaisdell. Education was valued in the Blaisdell hale. In 1942, Blaisdell graduated from Kamehameha School for Boys, where he received electrician's training. Fortunately, a teacher encouraged Blaisdell to pursue more education. His mother raised the money to send Blaisdell to the University of Redlands in California, and he graduated with honors in 1945. In the midst of World War II, Blaisdell received a deferment to attend medical school at the University of Chicago and graduated in 1948. "I fell in love with research and teaching," said Blaisdell.

The university president's speech about education struck a chord with Blaisdell when he said: "Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons and inHame their intellects." Blaisdell started to widen his horizons. Blaisdell was hungry for education. He interned at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital until the outbreak of the Korean War. Blaisdell joined the U.S. Army in 1950. He was sent to the hills of Korea as a battalion surgeon, then to Japan

and to īaiwan, where he trained Chinese nationalist army doctors. In 1954, Blaisdell returned to U.S. soil to finish his medical residency. Brielly he was an instructor at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, but returned to his alma mater in Chicago to complete a fellowship in hematology and was appointed a faculty instructor in 1957, and assistant professor in 1958. A year later, Blaisdell returned to Japan as the chief of hematology at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where he spent two years examining bomb victims and documenting the nuclear holocaust. "Since the holocaust and Hiroshima, science no longer holds its pristine plaee as the highest moral authority. Instead that role is taken by human rights," said Blaisdell about his experience. While living in Japan, Blaisdell started a family by adopting a Japanese orphan, whom he named Mitsunori Kamakani. Onee again, Blaisdell returned to the Univer-

sity of Chicago as assistant professor and found time for romance. In 1962, Blaisdell married Irene Hiroko Saito, a registered nurse. The newly appointed first dean of the UH School of Medicine was visiting Chicago and encouraged Blaisdell to return to Hawai'i. In 1966, Blaisdell moved his wife, son and young daughter to Hawai'i, and Blaisdell heeame the first professor and chair of the UH Department of Medicine. Immediately, Blaisdell successfully lobbied to change the two-year program into a four-year medical school. "The auspicious members of the first graduating class were Dr. Emmett Aluli, Dr. William Ahuna and Dr. Nate Wong. Other former students of mine were Dr. Kuhio Asam, Dr. Cedric Akau, Dr. Mel Chang, Dr. Gerard Akaka, Dr. Naleen Andrade and my daughter, Dr. Nalani Blaisdell, an M.D. at Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Heahh Center under Native Hawaiian healers," said Blaisdell, a professor emeritus at the school since 2003. "I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to have been a teacher. We ean reach into the future - beyond the days of our lives by becoming kumu, or teachers." Aluli said: "Blaisdell taught me to enjoy medieine, put patients first, understand the patient by knowing the family, bring science to the bedside - but sit and listen. And, 'doctor' means 'teacher.' Today former students use this mantra as they practice medicine." During the 1980s, Blaisdell read about Kanaka Maoli in a historical text, and thus began a new journey of understanding what it is to be Hawaiian. By 1985, Blaisdell published a comprehensive report on Native Hawaiian heahh, whieh documented the highest rates of heart disease, cancer, infant mortality, stroke, diabetes, teenage pregnancy and the shortest life expectancy of all the ethnic groups in Hawai'i. Blaisdell sought to address these problems by integrating traditional medicine whh western medicine and reinforcing cultural identity. Coincidentally, the World Heahh Organization initiated a study about the effects of salt in the diet of indigenous populations around the world. Blaisdell joined the study. He required a Native Hawaiian setting for the study. Moloka'i's 62 percent Native Hawaiian population was ideal. Blaisdell joined Aluli, a Moloka'i physician, and formed an advisory group of Native Hawaiian community members. Nā Pu'uwai (many hearts) was born. The landmark study was the first cardiovascular research done on Native Hawaiians. It was a precursor of the 1987 Moloka'i Diet Study. The research findings were used in testimony before Congress, whieh led to the passage of the Native Hawaiian SEE BLAISDELL ON PAGE 20

HEALĪH

Blaisdell, center, celebrates his 88th birthday in 201 3 with, from left, Drs. William "Bill" Ahuna, and Nathan "Nate" Wong, Richard Lee Ching and Emmett Aluli. - Courtesy photos: Richard Kekuni Blaisdell Family

Blaisdell's Kamehameha Schoo for Boys graduation photo. Class of 1941.

BLAISDELL Continued from page 13

Health Care Improvement Act of 1988. In 1991 Blaisdell presented the paper "Historical and Philosophieal Aspects of Lapa'au Traditional Kanaka Maoli Healing Practices" to a panel on Pu'uhonua in Hawaiian Culture. He pioneered a serious study of Kanaka Maoli heahh research as a medical

field and viewed Hawaiian independence as the only future for Kanaka Maoli survival. His approach combined western science and traditional Hawaiian healing. "Dr. Blaisdell was a man ahead of his time. He was clinically trained but looked to kūpuna for sources of preserved cultural knowledge, and

then could eoaeh leaders in the field of medicine," said Nā Pu'uwai Executive Director WilliamAkutagawa. Akutagawa added, because of pioneers like Blaisdell: "Native Hawaiian heahh care is differ-

ent today. It holds the key to the future." The community continues to recognize Blaisdell's contributions to Hawaiian culture and heahh. Last month, Blaisdell was honored as a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow for monetary contributions made in his name. In addition, three University of Hawai'i schools - Hawaiian Knowledge, Social Work and Medicine - are jointly proposing an honorary doctorate be awarded to Blaisdell in May 2014. The proposal is pending approval by the Board of Regents. Aluli, who witnessed Blaisdell's career as a student and later a colleague, described Blaisdell's legacy as long-lasting, "Dr. Blaisdell adapted whh the times and has impacted the next four to five generations of physicians in Hawai'i." ■ Chervl Corhiell is an instructor at the University ofHawai'i Maui. Col-lege-Moloka'i. and coordinator for TeenACE Wri.ti.ng and ACE Readi.ng programs.

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The Blaisdell family in 1 966 before leaving Chicago for Honolulu, where Blaisdell would help found the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine, later named John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Richard Kekuni BlaisdeH's pure Hawaiian grandmother Maria Pu'uohau, pictured, was hflnai'd by Queen Lili'uokalani. A painting given to Pu'uohau by the queen hangs in the family's Nu'uanu home.