Fred Plum

For the Olympic shooter, seeFrederick Plum.

Fred Plum(January 10, 1924 – June 11, 2010) was an Americanneurologistwho developed the terms "persistent vegetative state"and"locked-in syndrome"as part of his continuing research on consciousness andcomasand care of the comatose.

Biography

Plum was born inAtlantic City, New Jerseyon January 10, 1924.His father,Frederick Plum,a champion trapshooter and owner of a chain of drug stores, died when Plum was eight years old.Plum chose to pursue a career in neurology after his sister died ofpoliomyelitiswhile he was a teenager. He earned his undergraduate degree fromDartmouth Collegein 1944 and was awarded his medical degree from theCornell University School of Medicinein 1947. His first published paper was co-written with future Nobel Prize winner Dr.Vincent du Vigneaud.

Plum worked in the US Naval Hospital in St. Albans, Queens, NY during the Korean War. He was named head of the department of neurology at theUniversity of Washingtonin 1953, making him the youngest chief in the institution's history.There he created a respiratory center to help treat patients who were unconscious or comatose, including those who had suffered drug overdoses. Using the limited clinical tools available at the time, Plum developed guidelines to help determine how to best treat comatose patients, writingThe Diagnosis of Stupor and Comain 1966, together with his longtime research partner Dr.Jerome B. Posner,a work described by neurologistMarcus E. Raichleas having "put stupor and coma on the map as an important consideration in neurology".

Working together withGlasgowneurosurgeon Dr.Bryan Jennett,Plum developed theGlasgow Coma Scale,as an objective way of documenting and monitoring the conscious state of a patient based on eye motion, and motor and verbal responses. Together with Jennett, he coined the term "persistent vegetative state"to describe patients with severe brain damage who were in a coma, and had the appearance of being conscious without any detectable awareness. Plum testified as an expert witness in the 1975Karen Ann Quinlan case.

Plum later coined the term "locked-in syndrome"to describe a condition in which a patient is aware and awake but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of most voluntary muscles in the body except for the eyes.

Plum advocated that people should prepare anadvance health care directive,or "living will", to help guide their treatment in the event that they are not able to make medical care decisions due to illness or incapacity.Plum treatedRichard Nixonbefore his death in 1994, and credited Nixon's living will with allowing the former President to control his course of treatment with authority over how decisions were made at the end of his life.

Death

A resident ofManhattan,Plum died at age 86 in a hospice there on June 11, 2010, due toprimary progressive aphasia,a form of dementia similar toAlzheimer's disease.He was survived by his second wife, Susan, as well as by a daughter, Carol, and two sons, Michael and Christopher (married to Maureen B. Cavanaugh), from his first marriage to Jean Houston (died in 1999).