- A dictionary of medical eponyms

John Hageman

Born  1918
Died  1968

Related eponyms

    American railroad brakeman, born 1918; died 1968.

    Biography of John Hageman

    The condition is named for the person in whom it was first discovered, John Hageman, a railroad brakeman. In 1955, when he was 37 years old, a routine preoperative blood sample showed prolonged clotting time in test tubes, even though he had no haemorrhagic symptoms. Neither he nor his family had had a bleeding tendency, and he had not bled excessively after tonsillectomy, dental extractions or injuries.

    Hageman was then examined by Dr. Oscar Ratnoff who found that Mr. Hageman lacked a previously unidentified clotting factor. Dr. Ratnoff later found that the Hageman factor deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder, when examining several related people who had the deficiency.

    Hageman was 52 yars of age and working as a brakeman on the railways and fell from the ladder of the carriage of a moving train on 11 March 1968. He was taken to hospital, where he spent a week before he suddenly died of pulmonary embolism.

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