As a 7-year-old, Stanley J. Dudrick was so impressed with the compassionate care that his mother received when she had a life-threatening fever that he decided right then and there to become a doctor.

But as a young resident in the early 1960s, he began to have misgivings about becoming a surgeon when three patients who had undergone operations that were technically successful nonetheless died in the hospital.

Rather than change specialties or even abandon his chosen career, however, Dr. Dudrick decided to devote himself to discovering what caused their deaths.

He eventually did, finding the answer to be deceptively simple. But more than that, he perfected a treatment — one that has been credited with saving the lives of millions of premature infants as well as those of adults with a wide range of ailments, including cancer; severe bowel, kidney and liver diseases; and burns.