Dr. Norman A. Gale, 88; Pioneered the Use of Tetanus Inoculations

Dr. Norman A. Gale, 88, a San Diego physician who helped cut tetanus deaths in the 1950s and made house calls and worked seven days a week until his retirement in January, died June 13 of respiratory failure at Scripps Mercy Hospital, where he had been on staff for 54 years.

Born in Topeka, Kan., the Eagle Scout earned his medical degree at the University of Kansas and spent World War II as an Army physician attached to the 77th Evacuation Hospital. He served in England and the Sicilian and North African campaigns, landed on Utah Beach in Normandy after D-day and joined U.S. troops in Belgium at the Battle of the Bulge.

During the war, he learned the effectiveness of mass inoculations to prevent tetanus, commonly called lockjaw, which is contracted from organisms in soil that enter the body through open wounds. After servicemen were inoculated during the war, Gale recalled in a 1955 speech to the American College of Surgeons, a mere 12 cases of tetanus occurred. He later used the inoculation concept in San Diego, dramatically reducing the mortality rate of the disease.

In addition to his duties at Scripps, Gale served as chief of medicine at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego and was assistant superintendent at what is now UC San Diego Medical Center. Disliking elevators, he daily climbed, until his retirement, 11 flights of stairs at Scripps and seven flights to his downtown San Diego office. When he made house calls to elderly patients, he frequently took along treats, such as a strawberry milkshake or fresh tomatoes.