Ayub K. Ommaya, Neurosurgeon And Authority On Brain Injuries, 78
DGH
Ayub K. Ommaya, 78; Neurosurgeon and Authority on Brain Injuries
By Joe Holley, Washington Post Staff Writer
Dr. Ayub Khan Ommaya, 78, a neurosurgeon, an internationally known
expert on brain injuries and the inventor of a device that facilitates
treatment of brain tumors, died July 10 [2008] at his home in
Islamabad, Pakistan, of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
The longtime Bethesda [Maryland] resident was a retired chief of
neurosurgery at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
Stroke and professor of neurosurgery at George Washington University.
Before Dr. Ommaya's work in the 1960s, there was no effective way to
deliver chemotherapy treatments for brain tumors. His invention of the
Ommaya reservoir, a plastic dome-shaped device with a catheter
attached to the underside, made possible the delivery of chemotherapy
to the brain and spinal cord. In addition, the device served as a
prototype for all medical ports now in use.
Dr. Ommaya also developed the centripetal theory of traumatic brain
injury, which allowed scientists to understand and model how brains
are affected by blunt force. As chief medical adviser to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration and director of NHTSA's head
injury prevention program, he created a model for brain injuries that
led to design changes and the development of safety devices in motor
vehicles worldwide.
Known as the "singing neurosurgeon," Dr. Ommaya was a trained opera
tenor who often sang before and after surgery, to the delight of
patients and their families and his hospital colleagues.
Born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, he was a national champion swimmer. He
received his medical degree from King Edward Medical College in
Pakistan in 1953 and, as a Rhodes Scholar, received his master's
degree from Balliol College, Oxford [England] University, in 1956.
During medical school, he trained as an amateur boxer and was a member
of the crew team at Balliol.
He came to the United States in 1961 as a visiting scientist at the
National Institutes of Health and later became an associate
neurosurgeon. He was chief of neurosurgery from 1974 to 1979 and began
teaching at George Washington University in 1970.
In 1977, Dr. Ommaya was part of a team of GWU surgeons that saved the
life of a Rochester, New York, teacher by removing a snake-like tangle
of blood vessels at the base of his brain, a rare abnormal growth that
had paralyzed both his arms and legs and was threatening to cut off
his breathing. In a history-making operation that lasted 19 hours, the
man was chilled for a time to 65 degrees, his heart and lung were
stilled and his brain activity was halted.
Dr. Ommaya, who told The Washington Post that he got through the
surgery on just a couple of candy bars, said that it was "like
dissecting out hundreds of tiny snakes -- you have to dissect them out
individually without cutting them or damaging the nerves and the
spinal cord."
As a transportation safety expert, he commissioned "Injury in
America" (1985), a report that led to the creation of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's [CDC] National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control. The center provides synthesis, direction and
funding for the field.
He also invented an inflatable collar, similar to an airbag, that
attaches to motorcycle helmets as a protection against spinal injury.
In 1997, Dr. Ommaya was called as a defense expert witness in the
highly publicized trial of Louise Woodward, a British au pair accused
of killing an 8-month-old baby in her care. He maintained that the
child, Matthew Eappen, could not have been killed by violent shaking,
as prosecutors claimed.
Sitting in the witness stand of a Cambridge, Massachusetts, courtroom,
he bounced a wad of Silly Putty on the floor to illustrate the damage
that could be caused by impact. "The demonstration elicited a burst of
laughter from jurors and observers -- a rarity in a trial that has
featured emotionally wrenching testimony from the baby's parents and
others," the Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts) reported at the
time.
Dr. Ommaya retired in 2001.
His marriages to Parvaneh Modaber and Wendy Preece ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Ghazala N. Ommaya of Bethesda
and Islamabad; three children from his second marriage, David Ommaya
of Los Angeles [California], Alexander Ommaya of Bethesda and Shana
Ommaya of Vienna [? Virginia ? Austria ?]; three children from his
third marriage, Asha Ommaya of London [England] and Iman Ommaya and
Sinan Ommaya, both of Bethesda and Islamabad; two brothers; a sister;
and five grandchildren.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/13/AR2008071301791.html