Dr. Joan Hodgman, an influential pediatrician at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center who helped define the field of neonatology and guidelines that improved the standards for newborn care, died Aug. 10 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. She was 84.
A longtime resident of Arcadia, Hodgman died at a family cabin in Oregon, according to her daughter, Ann Schwartz.
Hodgman spent 60 years at County-USC, including three decades -- from 1957 to 1986 -- as director of its newborn division. She played a central role in developing its intensive care unit for sick and premature babies -- the first in Los Angeles and among the first in the nation -- and led efforts that dramatically reduced the hospital's infant mortality rate.
A prolific researcher and USC professor of pediatrics who wrote or contributed to more than 300 articles and books, she was particularly known for her studies on sudden infant death syndrome. She also was a leading voice in debates over the ethics of saving extremely damaged babies, often raising painful questions about when heroic measures should be abandoned.
"The name Joan Hodgman is recognized by every neonatologist throughout the world," said Dr. Lawrence Opas, County-USC's chief of pediatrics and director of graduate medical education at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "She was one of the great sages."
Hodgman was born Sept. 7, 1923, in Portland, Ore., and grew up in San Marino.
The daughter of an Army Corps engineer, she was raised to believe that "being a woman shouldn't stand in her way," said her cousin, Irene Hartzell. She entered Stanford University at 16 and earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 before pursuing her medical education at UC San Francisco, where she was one of the few women in her class.
She moved to Los Angeles in 1948 and completed her pediatric residency at County-USC in 1950. After two years of private practice, she returned to County-USC as head physician for pediatrics in 1952 and became director of its newborn division in 1957.
She quickly recognized the need for a specialized setting to care for the sickest babies. Around 1961, more than a decade before neonatology became a recognized subspecialty, she organized a newborn intensive care unit and began developing protocols for diagnosing its tiny patients.
