Fred Plum

Who was Fred Plum?

Fred Plum was an American neurologist who developed the terms "persistent vegetative state" and "locked-in syndrome" as part of his continuing research on consciousness and comas and care of the comatose.

Plum was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on January 10, 1924. His father, a champion trapshooter and owner of a chain of drug stores, died when Plum was eight years old. Plum chose to pursue a career in neurology after his sister died of poliomyelitis while he was a teenager. He earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1944 and was awarded his medical degree from the Cornell University School of Medicine in 1947. His first published paper was co-written with future Nobel Prize winner Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud.

He was named head of the department of neurology at the University of Washington, making him the youngest chief in the institution's history. There he created a respiratory center to help treat patients who were unconscious or comatose, including those who had suffered drug overdoses.