I opened my electronic mail and there was a message from the Heart Failure Society of America. Erroneously, I believed that the message was related to our next annual meeting. Unfortunately, it was not. The note read, “HFSA Announces the Passing of Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Dr. Arnold Katz. With heavy hearts we extend our sympathy to the family of Dr. Arnold Katz.”

I have been thinking of Dr Katz recently and after recovering from my initial surprise, I thought, “another giant in medicine and cardiology have been lost” and my memories of Dr. Katz and our association reemerged.

Dr. Katz’s contributions to the field of Cardiology were extensive and are well summarized in the obituary. “He earned a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago in 1952 and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1956. He worked in medical education and research at the University of California at Los Angeles, Columbia University, and the University of Connecticut. In 1969, he became the first Philip J. and Harriet L. Goodhart Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and in 1977, he moved to the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine to become its first Chief of Cardiology. He published more than 400 studies and edited or co-edited more than 15 books and textbooks. His single-authored text Physiology of the Heart is now in its fifth edition, having been translated into numerous foreign languages. Arnold was a devoted teacher and mentor all his life, winning many teaching awards. After his retirement in 1998, he served as visiting professor of Medicine and Physiology at Dartmouth Medical School. In 2008, he was also appointed as Visiting Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Arnold was honored with various research awards throughout his distinguished career, including the 1975 Humboldt Prize, the Research Achievement Award of the American Heart Association, the Peter Harris Distinguished Scientist Award of the International Society for Heart Research, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Heart Failure Society of America, and the Medal of Merit of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. The American Heart Association renamed its young investigator award for basic research The Louis N. and Arnold M. Katz Prize.” I would like to reflect, however, not of Dr. Katz–the cardiologist but of my memories and recollections of our association.

Throughout my medical school and my training I had always been very fond of the history of medicine and I knew all the work of Dr Katz in the field of history of heart failure. I enjoyed reading his studies about the function of the heart because he always put the data in context with history. There were wonderful and I wanted to meet him personally. So one day I decided to call and invite him to deliver grand rounds at Ochsner Clinic. I told him who I was and I said to him “I would love for you to come here, talk to our staff and I also said that I will the opportunity to discuss history of medicine.” He was very kind, he agreed to come and he told me that he was very excited to discuss the history of medicine. I was elated.

That day came and I proceed to pick Dr Katz up at the airport. We have dinner with my colleague Dr Mandeep Mehra, and Dr Furrukh Malik one of our cardiology fellows. It was a wonderful night, he told stories about medicine, gave great advice for research and the night went fast. For all of us was invigorating. We were at the presence of one of the most accomplished cardiologists in the world and a very skillful raconteur, but he made us feel at ease. I thought, “What a nice person.” The next day, he delivered his lectures, but I had the great opportunity to spend almost 2 hours talking to him. He showed and gave me several of his studies and was very engaged when I asked questions and gave my opinion regarding history. I remember showing him a quote from the Ebers Papyrus that seemed to be heart failure but although he did not disagree with me he told me to be cautious because the translations may not be accurate. Then I showed him a short story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle named Behind The Times. It is a very interesting story about how older doctors are not up to date with advances in medicine. The last 2 paragraphs are really interesting and depict the contrast between the older and the younger doctors.

“… When Dr. Patterson and I–both of us young, energetic, and up-to-date–settled in the district, we were most cordially received by the old doctor, who would have been only too happy to be relieved of some of his patients. The patients themselves, however, followed their own inclinations–which is a reprehensible way that patients have–so that we remained neglected, with our modern instruments and our latest alkaloids, while he was serving out senna and calomel to all the countryside. We both of us loved the old fellow, but at the same time, in the privacy of our own intimate conversations, we could not help commenting on this deplorable lack of judgment. “It’s all very well for the poorer people,” said Patterson. “But after all the educated classes have a right to expect that their medical man will know the difference between a mitral murmur and a bronchitic rale. It’s the judicial frame of mind, not the sympathetic, which is the essential one.” I thoroughly agreed with Patterson in what he said. It happened, however, that very shortly afterward the epidemic of influenza broke out, and we were all worked to death. One morning I met Patterson on my round and found him looking rather pale and fagged out. He made the same remark about me. I was, in fact, feeling far from well, and I lay on the sofa all the afternoon with a splitting headache and pains in every joint. As evening closed in, I could no longer disguise the fact that the scourge was on me, and I felt that I should have medical advice without delay. It was of Patterson, naturally, that I thought, but somehow the idea of him had suddenly become repugnant to me. I thought of his cold, critical attitude, of his endless questions, of his tests and his tappings. I wanted something more soothing–something more genial.

“Mrs. Hudson,” said I to my housekeeper, “would you kindly run along to old Dr. Winter and tell him that I should be obliged to him if he would step round?”

She was back with an answer presently. “Dr. Winter will come round in an hour or so, sir; but he has just been called in to attend Dr. Patterson.”

Dr Katz loved this piece and promptly asked me to print it because he wanted to keep the story to read it all. He said he was not aware that existed and was very grateful that I pointed the story to him. He made feel “very important.” He said, “I am glad you read different aspects of medicine. Stories like this one teach the practice of medicine.” I was thrilled!!

Since that visit we saw each other in meetings and I followed all his writings and had the opportunity to talk to him about different subjects. Years later, I wrote several studies of the history of heart failure and I had the feeling that some of the reviews were done by him. Every time he saw me he as well as his wife encouraged me to continue writing history that my studies were very well done and important. My colleagues and I worked and published a manuscript entitled “Ancient Egyptian Medicine and the Concept of Heart Failure.” I mention this work because it is related to my first conversation with Dr. Katz about the piece in Ebers Papyrus that seemed a description of heart failure and he calmed down my enthusiasm that translations were not always accurate and it is very difficult to be sure. After several reviews our manuscript was finally accepted for publication in the Journal of Cardiac Failure. I mentioned this to him and he congratulated me for being perseverant and for writing a very interesting manuscript in the history of heart failure. Two years later, Dr. Katz published the inaugural study of Circulation Heart Failure “The ‘Modern’ View of Heart Failure: How Did We Get Here?” While reading the manuscript to my surprise reference 4 was our Egyptian concept of heart failure. I saw few months later and I thanked him for using our reference. His response was vintage Dr. Katz spontaneous and hilarious. With a smiling face, he said, “Hector, I gave you such a hard time with that nice study that I had to reference it.” He was the reviewer and yes he gave us a hard time. Back and forth the Journal 3 times!

Few years later, James Young, Kirkwood Adams, and I discussed the formation of a medical teaching foundation that we named The History of Heart Failure ( http://www.hfhistory.com ) to preserve the historical landmarks of the concept and management of heart failure. We invited Dr. Katz he joined us graciously and worked hard to create a repository of material that exists today. We had several symposiums and Dr. Katz and I communicated more often about the foundation as well as historical issues in medicine. He was very excited to participate and was a key member for the success of our endeavor.

Dr. Katz was a giant in cardiology, a great person, a pioneer in heart failure and most of all a gentleman. Many others and I will miss him greatly. He was a role model for many of us and certainly for me. He asked me to call him Arnie, I never did. Today, I will. Arnie, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have done. You have touched many people in your life and your name will be remembered forever. “Farewell Arnie!”