Dr. Arthur C. Guyton was the preeminent cardiovascular physiologist of the 20th century. He was a renowned educator and medical researcher.
Dr. Arthur C. Guyton was born on September 8, 1919, in Oxford, MS, to the late Dr. and Mrs. Billy S. Guyton. His father was an ear, eye, nose, and throat specialist; and he was a dean of the two – year medical school on Ole Miss campus. Dr. Arthur Guyton’s mother name was Kate, and she taught mathematics and physics as a missionary in China.
Dr. Arthur C. Guyton attended University High School and graduated with the highest academic average in his class. In 1936, Dr. Guyton entered Ole Miss where he completed his undergraduate work in three years, and again he graduated at the top of his class. After graduating from Ole Miss, Dr. Guyton became a medical student at Harvard Medical School. In the middle of his senior year at Harvard, Dr. Guyton mets his future wife Ruth Weigle and they married on June 12, 1943. They had ten children and they all became physicians.
Shortly after his marriage, Dr. Guyton began his surgical internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Later, he was called to serve in the US Navy at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1947, Dr. Guyton contracted polio that caused him to be paralysis in his right leg and shoulder. After nine months recovery, Dr. Guyton invented a leg brace, a lift for handicapped patients, and a motorized wheelchair. He earned a Presidential Citation from these amazing inventions.
In 1948, Dr. Guyton and his family moved back to Oxford, MS, where he taught pharmacology in the two – year medical school. For 41 years, Dr. Guyton was professor emeritus of physiology and biophysics at Ole Miss Medical Center; where he became chairman of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. There he did researches that challenged prevailing medical thoughts and shaped our understanding of cardiac functions, hypertension, and congestive heart failure.
In 1950, Dr. Guyton did research that proved that the cardiac output was controlled by the body tissues’ need for oxygen and not by the heart itself. In addition, he developed a computer model of the circulatory system and used it to demonstrate that the kidneys provided a long – term control of the blood pressure.
Dr. Guyton wrote the world’s most widely used physiology textbook, Textbook of Medical Physiology. It was first published in 1959, is in its 10th edition, and has been translated into 15 different languages.
Dr. Guyton and his wife were in a two car accident on April 3, 2003, in Jackson, MS. Dr. Guyton was reported dead on the scene and Ruth died later on that week.
Dr. Guyton has received numerous awards. He has received a Scientific Achievement Award of the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association Research Achievement Award. On June 18, 1995, Dr. Guyton was honor for the $14.5 million Arthur C. Guyton Laboratory Research Center at University Medical Center in Jackson, MS. He also received the Abraham Flexner Award for distinguished service to medical education presented by the Association of American Medical Colleges in November 1996.
