ERYTHROBLASTOSIS FETALIS, or hemolytic disease of the newborn, can still kill babies. Fortunately, thanks to the work of medical investigators, preeminent among whom was Dr. Bruce Chown, the disease can be prevented.

Bruce Chown was born in 1893 in Winnipeg, a city that would be the site of his medical and scientific career. The name Chown was well-known in his native city as his father, H.H. Chown, was dean of the Manitoba Medical College while Bruce was a youngster.

Bruce enrolled at McGill but, before he completed his studies, World War I began and Chown enlisted in the Canadian Field Artillery. For his bravery under fire in France, he earned the Military Cross.

Upon returning to Canada he completed his BA and then returned to Winnipeg to pursue a medical degree. After graduation in 1922, he completed postgraduate work in pediatrics at Columbia, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins universities. By 1925 he was one of only a few thoroughly trained pediatricians in Canada and the only one in Manitoba.

Initially, Dr. Chown had a private practice but at the same time he was establishing himself as a respected pathologist at Winnipeg Children's Hospital. But by the 1930s he had become a full-time pathologist, and a few years later he was led into the research area in which he made such major contributions.

Hemolytic disease of the newborn occurs because human beings have blood that is either Rh-positive or Rhnegative (this is only one of many complexities in the structure of blood; each of us has a basic blood type of 0, A, B, or AB, but each of these types exists as either Rh-positive or Rh-negative). If an Rh-negative mother has an Rh-positive baby (which may well occur if the father is Rh-positive), she may develop antibodies in her blood against Rh-positive blood. If she then has a baby who is Rh-negative, as she is, there will be no difficulties, but if her second (or later) baby is Rh-positive, the antibodies in her blood can damage or destroy the red blood cells of that baby. A child diagnosed as having erythroblastosis fetalis can be affected in many ways, from mild anemia to jaundice and prematurity. In the past, many newborn deaths occurred because of this problem.

 The corollary is that nowadays this once devastating disease has become a rarity. The methods of Bruce Chown and the other Winnipeg investigators have been disseminated around the world. Potentially harmful antibodies can be tested for, and, usually, blocked. When erythroblastosis does occur, whole-body transfusions of the affected baby can effectively flush out the offending and sometimes lethal antibodies.

Charles G. Roland