Dr Richard K Root Croc Attack/Death

[NicoleRussell]

Dr Richard K Root Croc Attack/Death

Here is a message received by Dr Dawn Loken of Pro-Med regarding the detah
by crocodile attack of Dr Richard Root
in Botswana:
Dr. Root's obituary appears in the New York Times today. We are
saddened by the loss of an eminent figure in Infectious Diseases. His
death is unquestionably tragic, yet it leaves some of us wondering
about the reported details. I personally wonder if anyone affiliated with
ProMed could comment on the crocodile attack, which, occurring while
Dr.Root was in a canoe and the animal pulled him into the river, strikes
some of us as a strikingly rare event.
Bartholomew R. Bono, M.D.
Section of Infectious Diseases
Albert Einstein Medical Center
Philadelphia, PA
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I have researched the account by Googling "Richard Root and crocodile" on
Google News. Here's a prime
account from the Philadelphia Inquirer.although I am not exactly sure what
Dr.
Bono is requesting but presumably its whether or not this type of attack
behaviour, taking someoneone out of a
canoe, is commonplace among Nile Crocs. There are over 200 news accounts
for anyone who wants to research
them all. Some appear to have slight variations. The second one below tells
us the name of the river, for
example. Thanks to Scimansteve for reminding me of the croc lists's
address.
Please "hit reply to all" if you have any thoughts or comments on this
tragedy.
Thank You
Steve Grenard
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Posted on Thu, Mar. 23, 2006
Richard Root; founded division of Penn med school
By Michael Vitez
Inquirer Staff Writer
Richard K. Root, 68, the founding chief of the division of infectious
diseases at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the 1970s,
was killed Sunday when a crocodile pulled him into a river while he was on a
guided tour in Botswana, in southern Africa.
Dr. Root was in a dugout canoe with a guide in the Tuli Nature Reserve when
the crocodile thrust from the water, snatched him at his shoulders and neck,
and pulled him under.
His wife, Rita, in another canoe, witnessed the attack, said Steve Gluckman,
medical director of a program in Botswana run by Penn medical school.
"Dick was there working in our program and having a spectacular time,"
Gluckman said yesterday. "This was a perfect fit for someone who enjoys a
stethoscope. There is a lot of bedside teaching and a lot of very sick
patients."
He said Dr. Root had been upcountry at a Penn clinic in Tuli when he went
out on the Limpopo River. "Many of us have done similar things."
Tour guides were wary of hippos, Gluckman said, but there had been no
reports of crocodile attacks in the area.
Dr. Root's remains were found Tuesday morning.
Dr. Root, who lived in Seattle, was on a two-month assignment with the
Penn-Botswana program to teach at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone,
the capital of Botswana, and provide medical care for patients, most of them
infected with HIV.
Penn runs an extensive program in which physicians and medical students from
Philadelphia rotate into the Botswana hospital for months. The program is
extremely popular among medical students.
Harvey Friedman, chief of the infectious-diseases division at Penn and
director of the Penn-Botswana program, was hired by Dr. Root in the 1970s
and the two were good friends. Days before Dr. Root's death, Friedman had
returned to Philadelphia after spending two weeks with him on the African
program.
Friedman said Dr. Root was the happiest he had been in years. He had
recently remarried.
Friedman said no one he had spoken with in Botswana had heard of a crocodile
grabbing someone from a canoe.
"It was a tragedy, and it scares the #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& out of us," Friedman said,
"because we have a big program there."
Dr. Root was most recently a professor and vice chairman of the department
of medicine at the University of Washington and chief of medical service at
the medical school; he had held emeritus status since 2002.
Dr. Root, whose first wife died of Lou Gehrig's disease, is survived by
three sons.
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[NicoleRussell]

story
Crocodile grabs man from canoe

US prof killed in Limpopo
March 22, 2006

A professor at the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle who moved to Botswana to help alleviate a shortage of doctors there, was killed when a crocodile dragged him from a dugout canoe, his family and colleagues said.

Richard K Root, 68, was on a wildlife tour of the Limpopo River in remote north-eastern Botswana with his wife, Rita O'Boyle, on Sunday when it happened. The couple had been visiting a clinic in the area.

A nationally known expert in infectious disease and the former chief of medicine at Harborview Medical Centre here, Root went to the African nation to train health-care workers to deal with Aids.

The move and his marriage last year had given him a new purpose in life after some difficult years, which included having bypass surgery, suffering with depression and caring for his previous wife until she died in 2001 of a neuromuscular disorder.

Root's son, David Root, a Seattle architect, said he had spoken with his father on Saturday, and that he was happy about his work at Botswana's Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone.

"Dad had gone through #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& and had to take stock of his life," Root said.
Click here


Another son, Richard Root of Los Angeles, said his father, who had worked as a doctor in Iran in the 1970s, now wanted to dedicate himself to helping Africa.

Root taught at Penn in the early 1970s, before moving on to Yale and then, in 1982, to Seattle. He first served as chief of medicine at the Veterans' Administration Hospital, then took over the same position at Harborview in 1991.

He was former president of the American Federation of Clinical Research; editor in chief of a textbook, Clinical Infectious Diseases; and, from 1986 to 1991, he directed the National Institutes of Health's Aids Advisory Committee.

Steve Gluckman, medical director of the Botswana programme, said Root was in a lead dugout with tour guides when the crocodile rose out of the water and grabbed him. He was not seen again. The tour guides were wary of hippos, but there had been no reports of crocodile attacks in the area.

Survivors include sons Richard, David and Daniel, a Seattle physician. Root also had eight grandchildren. - Sapa-AP