Feb. 26--Dr. Eloise Johnson worked with pediatric cardiologists credited with developing the first treatment for the condition known as "blue baby syndrome." She went on to do research on childhood diseases during her time at what is now Lurie Children's Hospital.
"I knew of the research she had done at Children's Memorial Hospital on rheumatic fever and strep infections in children," said Dr. Stanford Shulman, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who met Johnson when he came to Children's in 1979.
"She did a lot of research and published a lot of important research papers in very prominent medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Experimental Medicine."
Johnson, 94, died of heart failure Feb. 3 at home in Chicago, according to her daughter, Eloise, who goes by "Toni." She lived in Kenilworth for more than four decades before moving to Chicago about five years ago.
She was born Eloise Eberling in Syracuse, N.Y., and lived there until moving with her parents to a farm in Skaneateles, in New York's Finger Lakes region, when she was a teenager.
She got a degree in physics from Syracuse University and studied medicine at what is now the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, also in Syracuse. Johnson told her family she was the only female member of her medical school graduating class in 1945.
After a residency in Buffalo, she became a pediatrician. She moved to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where she did a fellowship under Dr. Helen Taussig. Taussig, widely considered the founder of pediatric cardiology, worked around that time with surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock, and others to develop an operation to correct the congenital heart defect that causes "blue baby syndrome."
Dr.Johnson came to Lurie, then known as Children's Memorial Hospital, as a pediatric cardiologist in 1956, simultaneously joining the faculty of Northwestern University. At Children's she worked with another pioneer in the treatment of blue babies, surgeon Dr. Willis Potts. She became emeritus in 1997.
"She touched a lot of people's hearts," said her daughter, who is a pediatric cardiology nurse at Lurie.
Around 1970, she suffered a hearing loss which family members say she associated with a trip to Mexico to give a talk on her work.
No longer able to clearly hear the faint heart sounds so important to a cardiologist, she switched fields. In her 50s and determined to continue practicing medicine, she completed a fellowship in allergy and immunology at what is now the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
She practiced privately with her husband, fellow allergist Dr. James Johnson, and also treated patients at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago. Her husband died in 1990.
She continued working with veterans until she was 90.
Dr. Johnson and her family lived in Japan for two years while her husband, then an Army doctor, was posted there. During that time, she learned the art of bonsai and flower arranging, feeding her love of gardening. Her daughter said she was an early member of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe.
Johnson was also a rock 'n' roll fan, attending two concerts by the Beatles as well as two by the Grateful Dead.
"She was a remarkable lady and had an illustrious career," said her physician, Dr. Robert Bonow. "She was an inspiration for all of us."
Survivors also include a son, James; and a granddaughter.
Services were held.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
