American Excellence with KBB

On this podcast, you'll meet 250 people from American history. Up today...Dr. Barnett Rosenberg, a researcher, professor, and doctor who discovered cisplatin -- a chemotherapy treatment that reversed a cancer death rate from 95% to 5%. At a time when using metals in medical treatment was considered an "abomination," Dr. Rosenberg chose to pioneer on anyway, spending twenty years of his life finding, experimenting with, and successfully deploying cisplatin. Today, 10-20% of all cancer patients in the U.S. use cisplatin. Dr. Rosenberg was known for asking the focus to be put on new, younger scientists and their attempts rather than being celebrated himself. He also chose to specifically do the research no one else was willing to conduct and to spend his life saving people from almost certain death.

On this podcast, you'll meet 250 people from American history. First up...Orelena Hawks Puckett, a midwife from the Appalachian mountains who delivered 1,000 babies successfully. In this poverty-stricken area, death was common in the 1800's and 1900's when Orelena lived. Even though her own life experience was filled with tragedy after tragedy, Orelena spent nearly half a century serving her community with compassion and skill. Reports claim that she never lost a baby or mother under her care.