Pál Heim

Pál Heim (1875 to 1929) was a Hungarian pediatrician and university professor, born and died in Budapest. He began his medical studies in Lausanne and took his medical degree at the University of Budapest in 1897, then continued his training in Vienna, Breslau, where he worked in the clinic of Adalbert Czerny, and Paris, at the Pasteur Institute. In 1901 he became head physician of the children's department of the Merciful Brothers hospital in Buda, and he served as a military doctor in the First World War. From 1916 he led a hospital for babies in Budapest, and in 1918 he was named national commissioner for the protection of mothers and infants. He took a leading part in the National Stefánia Association for the protection of mothers and infants and helped to found the school of children's nurses whose graduates are known as the Heim Sisters. In autumn 1929 he was invited to lead the Pest children's clinic after his teacher János Bókay retired, but he died of pneumonia at the age of 54 within months and was buried in Kerepesi cemetery. The Pál Heim Children's Hospital in Budapest is named for him.