Jean Emily Henley

Jean Emily Henley from (December 3, 1910 in Chicago, Illinois – August 19, 1994 in Shelburne Vermont) was an anesthesiologist. She was the only child of Eugene Henry and Helen Esther Heller (maiden name: Gutman ), who emigrated from Hungary and Germany respectively into the United States. She was fluent in German, due to that being her parents native language. The father changed the family surname to Henley while she was still a child. Both parents practiced lay psychotherapy and later obtained PhDs. As both a sculptor and linguist, she had many accomplishments. It had thirteen editions until 1991 with a circulation of more than 15,000. She introduced practices that are still in use today: For example, she included on the back of the anesthesia chart an extensive and detailed check-list for both preoperative assessment and postoperative complications.

Upon her return to the United States in 1951 she became chair and associate professor at the Francis Delafield Hospital in New York until her retirement 1972. While there she specialized in cervical epidurals, even writing papers on her use of total autonomic blockade.

Invited in 1980 by Dr. Rudolf Frey, a lead anesthesiologist at the time, she spoke at the Seventh World Congress of Anesthesiologists.

On September 18, 1981 she became an honorary member of the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive care Medicine (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Anästhesiologie und Intensivmedizin, DGAI).