Dr. Horace Thompson, a pioneer in the use of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology, died Oct. 9. He was 87.
An unexpected result of the research Thompson and his colleagues did at the University of Colorado Medical Center made it possible for a woman to know in advance the sex of her child, said Dr. Peter Kapernick of Fort Myers, Fla.
“Many ladies can be thankful to Tommy Thompson for that,” said Kapernick, an ob-gyn who was hired by Thompson when Thompson became chief of the ob-gyn department at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
One of the “pioneering things” Thompson did was to write a paper in the early 1960s about the use and importance of ultrasound in obstetrics, Kapernick said.
His paper “publicized it and let people know what was going on.”
Thompson delivered speeches “all over the world” on the subject, especially when he was head of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (1978-80) and of the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (1985-91), said his daughter Susan Gebhardt-Rymer of Lakewood.
Thompson and his CU colleagues came up with a way to produce a two-dimensional view of the fetus, Kapernick said, as well as other advances.
In the early days of obstetrical ultrasound, the aim was primarily to find out if there was more than one fetus, Kapernick said. Before ultrasound, X-rays were used, “which doctors shied away from.”
In the early days of ultrasound, the woman was put in a tank, “something like a cattle-feeding trough,” that was filled with water, Kapernick said. The receiver and transmitter were also in the water. The water was necessary to cut down on the skin interfering with the test. This method was still being used in the late 1950s, Kapernick said.
Now, ultrasound is done in a doctor’s office, gel is put on the abdomen, a small hand-held device is rubbed over the area and the picture of the baby is on a nearby screen.
It can tell a doctor how far along the pregnancy is and show the beating heart, the spine, the limbs, cysts if there are any and even the hair on the head.
“Tommy Thompson and his colleagues were like tinkerers, always looking for ways to improve” the methods of ultrasound, said Kapernick. “He had tremendous perserverance.”
Horace E. Thompson was born in Pampa, Texas, on Jan. 12, 1921, and graduated from high school in Wills Point, Texas.
He worked in Denver hospitals as an orderly before getting his degree in medicine at CU. “I don’t know how he got into medical school,” said his wife, Edith Thompson, “because he never got a college degree.”
He studied at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and was in private practice in Fairplay and Lakewood before going to CU Medical Center.
He headed the ob-gyn departments at CU, Denver Health and LSU, where he retired in 1988.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Carol Thompson of Glenwood Springs, and a son, David Thompson of Loveland; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
