Alan Blake Gazzaniga

On Friday, June 17th, Dr. Alan B. Gazzaniga (“Big Al”), died peacefully in his North Tustin home where he raised four children with his wife Shae, grew a bountiful garden, entertained colleagues and friends, wrote five novels, married off two daughters, and watched his beloved grandchildren play in the backyard. Former Chief of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at UC Irvine Medical Center, Chief of Staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and recipient of the Orange County Medical Association Physician of the Year Award in 2000, Alan was and is a legend in the medical community. More importantly, he was a much-beloved husband, father, brother, and mentor.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1936 to Dante and Alice (Griffith) Gazzaniga, Alan grew up in a supportive family with his four siblings. After graduating from his adored alma mater, Glendale High School, he attended Dartmouth College (’58). While at Dartmouth, Alan was an academic All-American football player. Inspired by his father, a colon and rectal surgeon who co-founded the Ross-Loss medical clinic in Los Angeles, Alan pursued a career in medicine. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1961. He received his cardiac and pediatric heart surgery training at the Peter Bent Brigham and Children's Hospital in Boston, MA, and served two years of that residency as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. While at Children’s Hospital Boston, he met Sheila (Shae) McDonald, and it was love at first sight. The two married in Glendale and began their glorious journey of 58 years together

Alan and Shae moved to Orange County in 1970 when Alan and fellow Peter Bent Brigham resident Robert Bartlett were recruited to the faculty of surgery at the newly created University of California Irvine Medical School. A dynamic duo, Alan and Bob managed the surgical services at Orange County Medical Center, which eventually became UCI Medical Center. They also established the UCI Surgical Research Program and developed ECMO, an advanced life support technique that is used in intensive care units everywhere. Alan was the first physician to successfully perform a prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass on a newborn with heart failure after a complicated heart repair, which broadened the application of ECMO for young children and infants worldwide. With Edwards laboratories, Alan and Bob developed the incentive spirometer to prevent post-operative lung complications, now standard equipment in all hospitals.

Alan’s contributions to medicine and patient care can be seen every day. He created the concept of paramedics for emergency pre-hospital care (among the first in the country) and established the EMT program in the Orange County Fire Department. In 1979, he published Emergency Care: principles and practices for the EMT-paramedic, which was the first textbook for paramedics. His pioneering work on trauma care and paramedic training set the model for trauma centers across the country. During his tenure as Chief of Cardiac Surgery at UC Irvine Medical Center, he assisted on the first heart transplant in Orange County. Indeed, Alan’s surgical record is a story of firsts. He introduced total parenteral nutrition to the hospitals in Orange County and published landmark papers on nutrition and metabolism, including the first study of intravenous fat emulsions. His groundbreaking research (over 100 papers published) influenced surgical practice worldwide.

Alan was adored and admired by his thousands of patients and their families, nurses, doctors, technicians, and hospital staff. Alan was not only a beloved physician, he was also respected and admired as a tough but dedicated teacher and mentor to generations of medical students and residents. As one former student put it, he engendered loyalty from the people he worked with, “from the charge nurses of the ICU to those of the OR or ER, from the chief residents to the second-year medical students, and from the switchboard operators to the janitors.”

Alan’s commitment to medical research and education never wavered. He and Shae established scholarship funds for medical research at UC Irvine School of Medicine and Dartmouth Medical School as well as undergraduate scholarships at UCI and Dartmouth College. In honor of his father’s alma mater, Alan also set up a scholarship fund for students attending St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

Not one to idle in retirement, Alan moved from the operating theatre to the kitchen where he almost surpassed his wife with his cookery. In retirement, he also pivoted from solving the mysteries of medicine to writing medical mystery novels. A man dedicated to nurturing life, he spent his days tending to his many tomatoes, roses, veggies, and fruit trees.

While Alan’s professional accomplishments are extraordinary, he would say his greatest accomplishment was his family. Alan is predeceased by his parents, Dante and Alice, his brother Donald Gazzaniga, son-in-law Scott McMeekin, and brother-in-law Overton Gentry. Alan is survived by his devoted wife Shae, who lovingly cared for him during his final years; his eldest daughter Cathy Gazzaniga (and her children Charlotte, Jackson, and Remy McMeekin), his sons David Gazzaniga (and his wife Jessica and their children Kyle Smith, Isabela, Rachel, Johnny, and Luke) and Michael Gazzaniga (and his wife Lisa and their children Caden and Sophia); his daughter Andrea Gazzaniga (and her husband Gary Cieradkowski); his sisters, Becky Gazzaniga and Marge Gentry, brother Michael (Charlotte) Gazzaniga, and numerous nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach on July 7th, 2022, at 11 am.