GERSTENBERGER, HENRY JOHN (9 Jan. 1881-24 June 1954), a pediatrician who helped establish Babies & Childrens Hospital and develop SMA (Synthetic Milk Adapted), an artificial milk formula, was born in Cleveland to John H. and Clara E. Schake Gerstenberger. He received his M.D. from Western Reserve University Medical School in 1903. Encouraged to study pediatrics abroad, Gerstenberger went to Berlin and Vienna, but his studies were interrupted when he contracted tuberculosis. Gerstenberger returned to Cleveland in 1906 as head of the pediatrics department at City Hospital (Metropolitan General Hospital); director of the Tuberculosis Contact Clinic, the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere; and professor of pediatrics at Western Reserve University Medical School. Recognizing the need for inner-city infant and child care, he was instrumental in creating the Bureau of Child Hygiene as part of Cleveland's Dept. of Health. When Babies' Dispensary & Hospital formally opened in 1911, Gerstenberger was its first medical director. Located on Euclid Ave. near E. 30th St., the dispensary was open 6 days a week, with physicians donating their service. Partly financed by income from the production of SMA formula, Babies & Childrens Hospital relocated on University Hospitals' new campus in 1925. As professor of pediatrics, Gerstenberger found that a combined treatment of cod liver oil and ultraviolet light eased symptoms of spasmophilia, a convulsion caused by reaction to slight amounts of sunshine in springtime by children who suffer from rickets. Gerstenberger married Else B. Schweitzer on 28 Mar. 1913, and had 4 daughters, Paula Ruth, Else Louise, Gretel, and Katherine.
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