Opinion | Marion Jordan was a medical leader who served Washington for many years
Marion Jordan, the founding director of the Burn Center at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, died Sept. 28 in an unfortunate car crash incident on Interstate 97. For several decades, he led and provided a major and indelible contribution to the area’s health care.
In the late 1970s, as I was developing the surgical critical-care, trauma and MedStar helicopter services at the then-Washington Hospital Center, Dr.Jordan worked with me to establish regional trauma and burn care for the greater Washington metropolitan area. He provided a diligent, committed expertise to burn-injury prevention and to improving care for major burn injuries, including immersive care, burn wound excision with early skin grafting, and many other innovative techniques.
One Sunday morning I received a phone call from Bermuda where a boat explosion had caused about a 90 percent burn to a local architect. Bill McKenna, who ran the MedStar helicopter service for me, took his Learjet to Bermuda and that evening brought the patient back to National Airport and then by helicopter to MedStar, which at the time stood for Medical Shock Trauma Acute Resuscitation unit. Three months later, after extensive skin grafting, bouts of sepsis and other complications, the patient was able to return to Bermuda, his job and piano-playing with no functional and minimal external evidence of his very, very near-death experiences. Dr.Jordan mastered many such individual triumphs in patient care. Dr. Jordan, in his distinguished career, did great service to the Washington area.
Howard Champion, Annapolis
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