{"id":136667,"date":"2024-12-13T19:37:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T12:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136667"},"modified":"2024-12-13T19:37:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T12:37:11","slug":"dr-thomas-obrien-obituary-dangers-of-antimicrobial-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136667","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Thomas O\u2019Brien obituary: dangers of antimicrobial resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"newsletter | align_items_center border_bottom border_gray border_top border_1 container font_primary width_full margin_vertical_32 padding_vertical_24 standard is_article\">\n<div class=\"newsletter_cta | border_box width_full no_image\">\n<p><span class=\"title | bold font_secondary margin_bottom\">Get Starting Point<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"newsletter_widget_description\">A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cA lot of what he did was create a family,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/connects.catalyst.harvard.edu\/Profiles\/display\/Person\/74415\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. John Stelling<\/a>, who codirected and cofounded, with Dr. O\u2019Brien, the World Health Organization\u2019s Collaborating Centre for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance. \u201cEverybody contributes their little bit, and their little bit in aggregate tells a lot about emerging threats in close to real time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Dr. O\u2019Brien, who had served as the first director of the infectious diseases division at what is now Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legacy.com\/us\/obituaries\/name\/thomas-o-brien-obituary?id=56981518\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">died Monday in his Brookline home<\/a>. He was 95 and his health had been failing. His wife, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ropesgray.com\/en\/news-and-events\/news\/2017\/10\/ropes-gray-celebrates-ruth-reardon-obriens-accomplishments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ruth Reardon O\u2019Brien, who was the second woman partner at the Ropes &amp; Gray law firm<\/a>, was 92 when she died Thursday in their home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cHe was one of the very first people to call attention to the risks of antimicrobial resistance developing,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/physiciandirectory.brighamandwomens.org\/details\/1636\/daniel-kuritzkes-infectious_disease-boston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women\u2019s<\/a> and a professor at Harvard Medical School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Kuritzkes added that Dr. O\u2019Brien also emphasized the risk of antimicrobial resistance spreading \u201cfrom person to person, particularly in a health care setting,\u201d and the potential that it \u201ccould limit the effectiveness of antibiotics on which we rely to save patients\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Along with being an internationally recognized figure in his field, Dr. O\u2019Brien \u201cwas a wonderful person to have as a colleague and was extraordinarily modest, given his incredible accomplishments throughout his career,\u201d Kuritzkes said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">With enormous energy that sustained him through a career that spanned <a href=\"https:\/\/connects.catalyst.harvard.edu\/Profiles\/display\/Person\/54509\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 60 years at Brigham and Women\u2019s and Harvard Medical School<\/a>, where he was an associate professor, Dr. O\u2019Brien was 90 when he retired in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">At that point, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brighamandwomens.org\/medicine\/infectious-disease\/research\/whonet-antimicrobial-surveillance-research\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he was working with Stelling on the WHONET antimicrobial research operation they cofounded<\/a>. Stelling said WHONET is now in use by more than 3,000 laboratories in more than 130 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">He brought the same endless energy to home life in Brookline, where he and Ruth raised their six children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cScience has said there\u2019s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong,\u201d said his son Conan O\u2019Brien, the late night TV talk show host and podcaster. \u201cMy father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything \u2014 absolutely everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">From family to colleagues and friends, Dr. O\u2019Brien \u201cloved making connections with people,\u201d said Justin, the youngest of the O\u2019Brien children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Reunions, Dr. O\u2019Brien\u2019s or anyone else\u2019s, were always a draw.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cMy mother once said she thought he enjoyed her reunions more than she did,\u201d Justin said. \u201cHe really loved meeting people and hearing their stories and getting to know them in a very meaningful way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">A fan and a student of humor who had watched late night talk shows during his years as a medical resident, Dr. O\u2019Brien made sure his children knew comedy\u2019s classics, introducing them to recordings of Jack Benny\u2019s radio shows, Charlie Chaplin movies, and Marx Brothers movies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cThe loudest I\u2019ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a \u2018Pink Panther\u2019 movie,\u201d Conan said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Anyone who only knew Dr. O\u2019Brien through his work \u201cwould think, \u2018What a fascinating man,\u2019\u201d Conan said. \u201cBut he was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he would laugh, his whole body would convulse and he would almost hug himself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">The second of three siblings, Thomas Francis O\u2019Brien was born in Worcester on Jan. 28, 1929. He spent his early childhood in Millbury and was in his early teens when his family moved to Southbridge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">His father, Francis Noonan O\u2019Brien, was a banker, and his mother, Gertrude Connor O\u2019Brien, was a homemaker.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Graduating from Mary E. Wells High School in Southbridge in 1946, Dr. O\u2019Brien attended the College of the Holy Cross and received a bachelor\u2019s degree in classics in 1950. He graduated from Harvard Medical School four years later, did his residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and had an immunology fellowship at Cambridge University in England before serving in the Army Medical Corps for two years in San Antonio.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Two of his Holy Cross classmates were brothers of Ruth Reardon, whom he met when he went to their family\u2019s house one day. They married in 1958.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Other than the Army, Dr. O\u2019Brien spent his medical career at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women\u2019s, where he also formerly was director of the microbiology laboratory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Though Dr. O\u2019Brien was best known for his work in antimicrobial drug resistance, \u201cearly in his career, he produced the first device\u201d that allowed patients to undergo hemodialysis more than once using the same vein site, Kuritzkes said in his email to Brigham and Women\u2019s colleagues. That development helped acute renal failure patients undergo hemodialysis more frequently, which improved their health outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">As head of the hospital\u2019s microbiology lab, Dr. O\u2019Brien\u2019s management style reflected his personal approach to learning the personal stories of everyone he met \u2014 which meant he even formed a bond with the overnight crew.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cHe knew the guy who was there from 11 to 7, five nights a week,\u201d said Holly Bodman, former technical director of the microbiology lab. \u201cHe cared about every person individually in that lab. He was an amazing gentleman, a wonderful man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">In addition to his sons Conan and Justin, Dr. O\u2019Brien leaves two other sons, Neal of Brookline and Luke of Holliston; two daughters, Kate of Boston and Jane of San Anselmo, Calif.; and nine grandchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">A funeral Mass for Dr. O\u2019Brien and Ruth Reardon O\u2019Brien will be said at 11 a.m. Wednesday in St. Lawrence Church in Brookline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">When Dr. O\u2019Brien returned from his work-related world travels, Conan said, \u201che\u2019d come through the door and start making giant meals\u201d for a crowd around the dinner table that often edged into double-digits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Then he might head off to a marsh, having heard that a rare heron was making a local appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Dr. O\u2019Brien \u201calways said to me, growing up, that if you ever have a chance to do something, do it. It wasn\u2019t much more defined than that,\u201d Justin said. \u201cI think his point was that you\u2019re always going to end up meeting someone or having some kind of adventure and getting something out of whatever you\u2019re doing that will benefit your life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">Conan said their father \u201chad a voracious appetite for ideas and people and the crazy variety and irony of life. He wanted to go everywhere, meet everybody, see everything, taste everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">And that enthusiasm made Dr. O\u2019Brien a favorite of all he met.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\"><span class=\"html-render\">\u201cFor the rest of my time on earth I will be hearing from people who want to talk with me about my dad,\u201d Conan said. \u201cI\u2019ve never met anyone like him, and he happens to be my father. If I met him randomly in a hotel lobby, I\u2019d think, \u2018Who the hell is this guy? He\u2019s the most interesting person I\u2019ve ever met.\u2019 &#8220;<\/span><\/p>\n<hr class=\"tagline_hr | border_foreground border_half gutter_20_28--mobile&#10;               margin_none text_align_left width_100px\"\/>\n<p class=\"tagline | font_primary inline_block  margin_top_32\">Bryan Marquard can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2024\/12\/12\/metro\/dr-thomas-obrien-obituary-conan-obrien\/mailto:bryan.marquard@globe.com\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"font-size:inherit;letter-spacing:.5px\" rel=\"noopener\">bryan.marquard@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\nvar oneTrustActive = true;\nvar oneTrustConsentObj;\ntry {\n oneTrustConsentObj = JSON.parse(window.localStorage.getItem('consent_one_trust_bgmp') || '{}');\n} catch (err) {\n oneTrustConsentObj = {};\n}\n\/\/ Default to granted consent\nvar consent=\"grant\"\n\/\/ FB script decleration\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {\n  if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s);\n}\n(window,document,'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nif (oneTrustActive && oneTrustConsentObj && oneTrustConsentObj.C0004 === false) {\n  consent=\"revoke\";\n}\n\/\/ We need to call consent before we run init and track\nfbq('consent', consent);\nfbq('set', 'autoConfig', 'false', '884869448226452');\nfbq('set', 'autoConfig', 'false', '493062270895851');\nfbq('init', '884869448226452');\nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2024\/12\/12\/metro\/dr-thomas-obrien-obituary-conan-obrien\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. \u201cA lot of what he did was create a family,\u201d said Dr. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136667\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}