| Departments — In Memoriam | Spring 2008 |
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Benedict F. Massell Massell joined the medical staff at the House of the Good Samaritan in 1937, during a decade that saw rheumatic fever together with rheumatic heart disease become the leading cause of death in children aged 5 to 15. Researchers were avidly seeking the cause of the disease and a means of stemming its toll. So when Massell, a researcher and a physician, entered the Good Samaritan, he entered what would become his clinic, laboratory, and home to the research that broke the disease’s grip on a generation of children. Had tradition triumphed, Massell would have not been involved in researching this disease; he would not even have earned a medical degree. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1906, Massell intended to follow his father’s footsteps into a career in dentistry. Yet after only one year at Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1927, Massell switched to medicine—and the adventure of research. After earning his degree from HMS, Massell trained at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and at what was then known as Babies Hospital, Columbia Medical Center in New York City. From there, he began a three-year residency at Children’s Hospital Boston and in the laboratory of Paul Dudley White, Class of 1908, at Massachusetts General Hospital. It was in White’s laboratory that Massell was introduced to research on streptococcal infections. By the late 1930s, Massell had joined the medical staffs of the House of the Good Samaritan and Beth Israel Hospital. During World War II, he put his knowledge of streptococcal infections to work for the U.S. Navy. Shuttling between the Good Samaritan and the Navy’s training station in Newport, Rhode Island, Massell investigated the epidemiology of streptococcal infections and rheumatic fever, two conditions ripping through the service’s ranks. After the conflict, Massell returned to the Good Samaritan, where he became chief of the hospital’s rheumatic fever division. The hospital was an unusual one. Supporting only 80 beds, it had been chartered to care for the underserved of Boston. At the time, the most needy were those who suffered from tuberculosis or orthopedic conditions. By 1924, however, the hospital had shifted to serve children with acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. This singular focus meant Massell could observe one illness in all its manifestations. In 1946, after earlier, limited success using sulfonamides against streptococcal throat infections, Massell began administering the then-new drug penicillin to rheumatic heart disease patients at the Samaritan who had developed strep infections. He found that treating the throat infections with penicillin not only halted the spread of the bacteria to other hospital patients, but also prevented many of the patients from relapsing with rheumatic fever. The results convinced him that rheumatic fever and streptococcal infections were inextricably linked. It was soon clear that using the antibiotic to control streptococcal infections helped prevent rheumatic fever in the first place, and that prophylactic treatment with penicillin kept patients with rheumatic heart disease from relapsing. After the Good Samaritan closed, Massell continued studying the natural history of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. In 1988, he published an analysis of the decline in acute rheumatic fever in this country and, at the age of 90, he authored a definitive text that highlighted the research on rheumatic fever and streptococcal infections. He also enjoyed painting and, in his earlier years, had been an avid golfer. Massell is survived by Josephine, his wife and supporter for 66 years. Stafford I. Cohen, MD, is an associate clinical professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Photo: Children’s Hospital Boston |
the scourge of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, Boston’s House of the Good Samaritan closed its doors for lack of patients. And with some measure of personal persistence and likely a dash of good genes, Massell was able to enjoy remarkable longevity. When he died January 28, 2008, at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, he was 101. 
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