Remembrances from an Early Pioneer in the Management of NEC

For almost five decades pediatric surgeons and neonatologists have been challenged with the care and treatment of infants affected by neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The ever-improving care in newborn critical care units by specialists in neonatology led to new conditions that came about because increasingly immature babies were surviving. Some arose as complications of treatment, such as chronic lung disease from prolonged ventilatory support. NEC, however, was more perplexing as it had no relation to an antecedent event.