Jean Holowach Thurston, MD, a pioneering pediatric neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died April 29, 2017. She was 99 and about a month away from her centennial birthday.
A professor of pediatrics and of neurology, Thurston died of natural causes at a retirement home in University City, Mo.
“Jean was a true pioneer,” said Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology and director of the university’s Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology. “She embodied pediatric neurology decades before the discipline emerged.”
Since midcentury, Thurston’s influential research in pediatric neurology has served as a guide for colleagues in treating childhood seizure disorders. She led long-term studies examining anticonvulsant withdrawal in pediatric patients with epilepsy, a chronic condition that causes seizures. Thurston’s research, published in 1972 in The New England Journal of Medicine, identified seizure recurrence risks. Those findings contributed to treatment therapies and diagnostic tools for childhood epilepsy, and the findings remain relevant today.
The School of Medicine is planning a memorial service in June, with details to be announced.
Memorial donations may be made to the School of Medicine’s Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology. For details, please contact Lori Nichols at lorinichols@wustl.edu.
Read the full obituary on the School of Medicine site.
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