CHARLES THEODORE DOTTER, M.D.

1920-1985

Dr. Charles Theodore Dotter, chairman of the Department of Radiology at the Oregon Health Services University School of Medicine, died on February 15 at the age of 64.

He was bom in Boston in 1920, graduated in 1941 from Duke University and earned his medical degree in 1944 from Cornell University Medical College. He was a radiologist in New York City and a radiology instructor at Cornell Medical School before moving to Portland, Oregon in 1952.

Dr. Dotter developed a procedure known as transluminal angioplasty, which consists of using X-ray-guided catheters in the body to unplug arteries. The technique was expanded to halt internal bleeding, remove gallstones and dissolve blood clots caused by heart attacks. Dr. Dotter’s use of non-surgical procedures to open blocked arteries was credited with saving hundreds of limbs that would otherwise have been amputated because of the threat of gangrene. He was awarded gold medals by the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, and Chicago Medical Society and the Chicago Radiological Society.

He ascended 67 peaks above 14,000 feet in the United States and also climbed in the Alps. He joined the American Alpine Club in 1957.

He leaves his wife Pamela, a son Jeffrey of Portland, Oregon and two daughters, Jane Huntington of Ariel, Washington and Barbara Allin of Hillsboro, Oregon.