{{Short description|American pediatrician (1908–2002)}} '''Russell Blattner''' (July 3, 1908 – December 6, 2002) was a pediatrician and the founding physician-in-chief of Texas Children's Hospital.
==Career== Early in his career, Blattner was involved in research on the source of St. Louis encephalitis.<ref name=Malady>{{cite news|title=Chicken Mites Carry Malady|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FDIdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GiMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3049,3680230&dq=russell-blattner&hl=en|accessdate=May 6, 2013|newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal|date=November 24, 1944}}</ref> In 1947, Blattner was named Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. He was able to plan and implement the founding of Texas Children's Hospital, which is currently the largest children's hospital in the United States.
Blattner served as physician-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital from 1954 until 1977, when he was replaced by Ralph Feigin. One of his first notable decisions was to allow parents to stay with children during hospitalization, a practice which has since been widely adopted by other hospitals.<ref name=Remebering>{{cite news|last=Hudson|first=Angela|title=Remembering Texas Children's First Physician in Chief|url=http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/01_15_03/page_11.html|accessdate=May 6, 2013|newspaper=Texas Medical Center News|date=January 15, 2003|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205202448/http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/01_15_03/page_11.html|archivedate=February 5, 2012}}</ref> Blattner brought a tuberculosis control program to Houston.<ref name=TB>{{cite news|title=TB Unit to Hear Noted Pediatrician|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1xtQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J1YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7189,3775922&dq=russell-blattner+baylor&hl=en|accessdate=May 6, 2013|newspaper=The Victoria Advocate|date=June 5, 1958}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blattner, Russell}} Category:1908 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American pediatricians Category:Baylor College of Medicine faculty