Dr. Joan Hodgman

Pioneering pediatrician dies of ALS at 84

LOS ANGELES -- Dr. Joan Hodgman, a pediatrician who pioneered guidelines for newborn care, died Aug. 10 of what is known as Lou Gehrig's disease. She was 84.

Hodgman died at a family cabin in Oregon of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, according to her daughter Ann Schwartz.

The longtime Arcadia resident worked for 60 years at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, and served as the director of its newborn division from 1957 to 1986. There she helped develop Los Angeles' first intensive care unit for sick and premature babies--one of the first in the nation.

Her efforts are credited with reducing the hospital's infant mortality rate by 50 percent within a decade, affecting thousands of babies.

Born Sept. 7, 1923, in Portland, Ore., Hodgman enrolled at Stanford University at 16 before going to medical school at University of California San Francisco.

In 1999, Hodgman received the Apgar Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the highest honor in neonatology.