Abraham Bergman, Physician Who Sought Solutions on SIDS, Dies at 91

Dr. Abraham B. Bergman, a pediatrician who was instrumental in passing a federal legislation to fight sudden toddler dying syndrome, a as soon as misunderstood loss that precipitated not simply parental heartbreak however guilt and blame, and who put his stamp on different enduring public well being legal guidelines, died on Nov. 10 in Seattle. He was 91.

The reason for his dying, on a member of the family’s boat, was amyloid coronary heart illness, his son Ben Bergman mentioned.

Within the Nineteen Sixties and early ’70s, Dr. Bergman was president of the Nationwide Basis for Sudden Toddler Dying, a grass-roots group that supported mother and father who had misplaced kids to what as soon as was generally known as crib dying. Though SIDS, because the syndrome turned recognized, was the main killer of infants lower than a 12 months outdated, its trigger was unknown. Mother and father usually blamed themselves, marriages broke up and, in some circumstances, authorities investigated for baby abuse.

“What we do to these mother and father is crime,” Dr. Bergman instructed The New York Instances in 1972. “The police examine, there’s a coroner’s inquest, and infrequently the household physician abandons the mother and father.”

Dr. Bergman’s group sought to destigmatize SIDS, help grieving mother and father and lift cash for analysis. Its efforts led to the Sudden Toddler Dying Syndrome Act of 1974, which appropriated tens of millions of {dollars} for analysis.

Dr. Bergman, who known as his decades-long advocacy for enhancing childhood well being “political drugs,” was a passionate witness in hearings on Capitol Hill on quite a lot of points. He provided heart-wrenching anecdotes and chastised lawmakers for his or her inaction. However he additionally labored behind the scenes as a de facto lobbyist to maneuver payments. Cultivating ties to 2 influential U.S. senators from Washington State, Warren G. Magnuson and Henry M. Jackson, he was unusually profitable as a personal citizen who influenced laws.

“Magnuson actually trusted Abe, who had his ear and motivated him to do rather a lot,” mentioned Eric Redman, a former legislative aide to Mr. Magnuson.

In 1967, Dr. Bergman jolted Mr. Magnuson by taking him to the burn unit of a Seattle kids’s hospital and displaying him younger sufferers who had been badly injured when their garments caught hearth. Earlier than a Senate subcommittee that Mr. Magnuson led, Dr. Bergman held up a flannel nightgown of the sort {that a} 2-year-old lady has been sporting when it ignited from an area heater, burning her over 85 % of her physique. “You senators are able to save lots of way more lives than physicians,” he mentioned. In response, Congress toughened and broadened the Flammable Materials Act to require extra flame-resistant clothes.

In 1970, Dr. Bergman proposed to Mr. Magnuson the concept for the Nationwide Well being Service Corps, a federal program to pay well being care suppliers’ scholar debt in trade for a stint of doctoring in poor communities. Dr. Bergman enlisted medical college students to foyer key members of Congress of their house districts. He personally went to West Virginia to place strain on Consultant Harley Orrin Staggers, whose district was one of many neediest within the nation. President Richard M. Nixon signed the Nationwide Well being Service Corps into legislation in December 1970, simply 10 months after Dr. Bergman had proposed it.

Working with Mr. Jackson’s workplace, Dr. Bergman additionally helped draft the Indian Well being Care Enchancment Act of 1976, which expanded funding for care to Native Individuals, and lobbied for its passage on Capitol Hill.

“Jackson successfully added Abe to his workers for the legislative effort,” Mr. Redman recalled.

Abraham Baer Bergman, referred to as Abe, was born in Seattle on Might 11, 1932, to Fred and Minnie (Hurwitz) Bergman. His father owned a baggage retailer, and his mom was a homemaker.

He graduated from Reed Faculty in 1954 and obtained his medical diploma from Western Reserve College (now Case Western Reserve College) in Cleveland in 1958. He was a pediatric resident at Boston Kids’s Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital in London, the place he lived for a time.

He started his profession at Seattle Kids’s Hospital, the place he was director of outpatient companies for 19 years, after which moved to Harborview Medical Middle, the place he was chief of pediatrics from 1983 to 2005. He continued to serve on the college of the College of Washington College of Drugs till 2016.

Dr. Bergman’s marriages to Judy Maslin, Ann (Bigelow) Bergman and Suzanne Fiala resulted in divorce..

Along with his son Ben, Dr. Bergman is survived by seven different kids: Anna and Matthew Bergman, Sarah Bergman Lewis, Becca Bull and Pavel, Eugeny and Yulia Fiala, who have been adopted from orphanages in Russia. He’s additionally survived by six grandchildren.

When Dr. Bergman started researching crib dying, specialists had largely discarded its many supposed causes, together with suffocation in bedclothes, allergy to cows’ milk and lead poisoning. A concept Dr. Bergman proposed was that infants skilled a spasm of the vocal cords that closed off the airway throughout sleep.

At a analysis convention in Seattle in 1969, the time period sudden toddler dying syndrome was first formally proposed as a analysis.

In 1973, Dr. Bergman testified earlier than Congress, armed with a report about how legislation enforcement, coroners and fogeys in 158 communities responded when a baby died out of the blue in a crib. There have been discrepancies in how well being authorities handled mother and father of various races; solely half as many Black mother and father as white mother and father have been instructed their child had died from SIDS. One Alabama coroner, quoted within the report, attributed a SIDS dying to suffocation as a result of “Blacks have no idea tips on how to care for his or her kids correctly.”

In the course of the listening to, he castigated lawmakers for his or her inaction: “Possibly it’s the warmth or possibly it’s the smog. Authorities officers right here in Washington are all the time busy, busy, busy with huge issues.”

The Sudden Toddler Dying Syndrome Act was handed quickly after.

At present, the reason for SIDS continues to be a medical thriller, however the incidence of deaths has declined sharply since 1990. The rationale typically cited is a rise in public consciousness of danger components. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that oldsters put infants to sleep on their backs of their first 12 months and that moms breastfeed infants, which has been proven to decrease the chance of SIDS.

Jerry Grinstein, a former Senate aide who later turned the chief government of Delta Air Strains, recalled in an electronic mail that Dr. Bergman first approached Commerce Committee workers members about SIDS within the late Nineteen Sixties, however that it took a couple of years to develop laws and public help.

Committee members and workers “bought the job performed,” Mr. Grinstein wrote. “Nevertheless it was Abe’s inspiration and persistence to make use of laws supported by compelling tales from fellow professionals, plus hurting mother and father.”