Peter is now gone. And yet he will live on in each of us—those who knew him and those who did not—for as long as emergency physicians value our responsibilities as specialists and fight to protect them and our patients.
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ACEP Now: Vol 38 – No 12 – December 2019Peter would ask and expect us to care and protect our vulnerable patients, to expand and transfer our knowledge to the next generation of specialists, and to demand excellence in all of these endeavors. And he would do so with the same rigor, affection, and humor for which he was so widely admired during his long and productive life. This is how we will honor the prodigious legacy of Peter Rosen, MD, 1935–2019.
Dr. Wolfe is chief of emergency medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
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9 Responses to “In Memory of Dr. Peter Rosen, a Founder of Emergency Medicine”
December 14, 2019
R HouleI still remember Dr Rosen’s famous “Pretzel Hold Story”.
December 15, 2019
Paul Orcutt MD, FACEPDr. Rosen was the one person I have always respected and admired. My only meeting with him was many decades ago when he administered my oral board exam.
Thank God I chose to study chose textbook for my oral exam.
Paul Orcutt MD FACEP
December 15, 2019
John C JohnsonThanks for the wonderful biography of a legend in EM. Peter was on the ABEM Board and as such could not take the exam until he had been off for I believe 5 or 10 years. When he got around to taking the oral, as was the practice – all oral examiners had the ability to cross off candidates that they felt they had a conflict of interest. With Peter’s cantankerous reputation, NO ONE, wanted to be his examiner. I knew him, of course. Ben Munger CEO of ABEM, came to me the first day of the exam and told me I HAD to test Peter in the double scenario. I reluctantly agreed. When Peter came into my room, I felt like standing and saluting. (think George Patton to imagine the moment) One of the scenarios involved a pancreatitis and one of the critical points was to order an amylase. He did a perfect exam and ordered his KUB and lab, but did not mention amylase. Now what do I do. “Is there anything else you would like, Dr. Rosen” No thanks was the answer. When it later came time to reveal his x-ray and lab results, the amylase was on a separate page which I withheld. He asked – “where’s my amylase” – you didn’t order one my answer – “you caught that, eh ? I would like to order one now” – shortly he got his result. Catastrophe avoided – I would have had to fail Peter Rosen.
December 29, 2019
Donna HelgrenI was fortunate that a large portion of my nursing career was practiced in the ER of DGH. Dr. Rosen was a striking influence during those years. He promoted a team approach to provide the best care possible to all of the patients at every level of need.
February 6, 2020
Frank A MooreRIP.
We will carry on the fight in your honor.
February 8, 2020
Chris Hinson MDI had the chance to meet Dr. Rosen as a resident while at Cook County Hospital in Chicago while working with another Giant in medicine Dr. Quentin Young. He was indeed an impressive Humanitarian and dedicated to the proposition that Emergency physicians must be the best specialist outside of every other specialty and know every other specialty to a degree sufficient to do their job if necessary.
October 5, 2020
Marzieh Fathi“AS A WOMAN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY, YOU SHOULD BE STUBBORN”.
I will never fotget your advice…dear Peter.
March 29, 2022
Terrence L. Jones MDAloha ‘Oe Peter,
Your guidance and influence have spread your mindset across the Emergency Medicine landscape, and it has been well appreciated. Mahalo my friend and mentor. You will be sorely missed, as well as Chinese food after the evening shift!
November 2, 2022
Rick PostOne of my life’s profound moments was when Dr Rosen pronounced an individual dead.
My dance studio was having a party at the Brown Palace hotel and when I walked into the hotel all my students were not in the restaurant they were in the hotel lobby. I was told an elderly man collapsed while dancing. Thinking it was one of my students I rushed to find it wasn’t one of my students, but this unknown woman grieving over her husband being worked on by EMTs. I volunteered to assist by driving her to the Denver General Hospital Emergency room, she was not in a condition to drive.
After 2 or 3 hrs Dr Rosen told this lady he did everything he could to save her husband’s life, but was unable to succeed.
I never experienced anything like this before. Speaking to this woman the way he did was so full of compassion and honesty that I will never forget this short conversation.
Dr Rosen left a memory with me that I’ll never forget.