Stephen Boros Obituary

Stephen Boros attended Downers Grove North High School in Downers Grove, IL. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Stephen Boros.

Graduation Year	Class of 1959
Date of Passing	Jul 23, 1994
About	Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN) - July 24, 1994 Deceased Name: Stephen Boros dies; doctor was a leader in treating infants. Dr. Stephen Boros helped develop the technology to save the lives of babies with lung problems. He worked with critically ill newborns and their families. He published and presented work that is used worldwide to help save infants' lives. But no matter how well-recognized he was, one friend said, he never lost his humor or his human touch. "He had a great zest for life," said Dr. Michael Coleman. "He taught you not to take yourself so seriously." Boros, 53, director of neonatal medicine at St. Paul Children's Hospital, died of cancer Saturday in his Minneapolis home. He was born in Aurora, Ill., and educated at the University of Illinois. He interned in Chicago and served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. After the war, he worked for a couple of years on staff at the Group Health Medical Center in St. Paul before becoming a neonatology fellow in the University of Minnesota's Pediatrics Department. This was in 1973, when neonatology - the care of critically ill newborns - was an emerging field. At that time, the technology didn't exist to treat premature infants with respiratory problems. Doctors would use adult ventilators on infants, causing other complications, including life-threatening air leaks in the lungs. Boros helped develop respirators for treating newborn lung disease. Today, fewer than 4 percent of newborns mechanically ventilated at the Children's Hospital develop the problem. Boros' literature on the techniques and technology is read and used around the world. Boros helped train doctors both with his research and as an associate professor in the Pediatrics Department at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Mark Mammel, another partner at the Children's Hospital, said that in the intensive care unit, where tension and stress can run high, Boros always had the required seriousness, but the tone was balanced with what Boros would say was the secret of eternal youth - arrested development. Because of Boros' attitude, Mammel said, the Children's Hospital unit has low staff turnover in what is usually a high-turnover field. For Fred Krehbiel, who knew Boros since grade school, none of this comes as a surprise. He remembers hearing Boros talk about medicine in grade school. And his quirky personality? "I can't think of anyone more fun to be around," Krehbiel said. "He had a terrific sense of what was and what wasn't important in life." What was most important was his patients. Around Christmastime in 1987, a 12-year-old boy wrote to Boros: "I don't know if anyone remembers me . . ." Boros did. The boy, as an infant, was one of the first patients to receive a new therapy, which is standard today. Boros later met the boy, and they corresponded a couple of times a year for years. To state Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, Boros was doing what he did best - being a good friend. Page and Boros jogged together every morning for more than a decade. As Page put it, "You have to want to be with somebody at that hour." And he did. Boros is survived by his wife, Karen, who was a correspondent for WCCO-TV, Channel 4, and CBS-TV, and a newswoman for Minnesota Public Radio, and his parents, John and Helen, of Clearwater, Fla. Services are pending.