Betty E. Lank made many contributions to pediatric anesthesiology, both scientifically and in patient care. Lank was born on January 4, 1904 on Campobello Island, New Brunswick to Henry and Carrie (Mitchell) Lank. By the end of the Second World War, at the age of fourteen, Lank decided she wanted to be a nurse anesthetist. She attended Newton Hospital School of Nursing at the age of nineteen. During her coursework at Newton she was given the option of public health or anesthesia. She chose anesthesia and studied there for three years where she gained experience in the operating room. Lank went into private nursing in order to make enough money to get her certificate from Newton.

During the Great Depression jobs were scarce so Lank worked summer relief in Brooklyn, New York. Following her summer in Brooklyn in 1935, Lank returned to the Boston area when Children’s Hospital needed summer relief. That summer relief turned into thirty-four years of service. Once at Children’s Hospital she quickly became Chief Nurse Anesthetist of a division that had five nurse anesthetists and one gas machine to share throughout the hospital. Lank was sent to Yale Hospital for a week in 1939 to study cyclopropane which up until that point had only been used on adults. Returning to Children’s, Lank had a small mask and canister suitable for children constructed which she used to administer cyclopropane during a trachea-esophageal surgery. Thus began the monumental use of cyclopropane as an anesthetic for children.

Lank assisted with many important surgeries throughout her career including several with Dr. Robert Edward Gross (1905-1988), a well-known cardiac surgeon. Among the surgeries Lank assisted with was that of Prince Alexander (1942-2009), son of Lilian, Princess of Réthy (1916-2002) and King Leopold III (1901-1983) of Belgium, on September 17th, 1957. Lank continued a relationship with Princess Lilian throughout her life.

Lank was devoted to patient care. She is noted as taking extensive measures in caring for her patients, pre- and post-surgery in an era before recovery rooms. She is known for humming and singing to the children to soothe them. Lank retired in 1969 and has been recognized in several notable articles by Dr. Robert Smith and Dr. W. Hardy Hendren III. There is also a plaque dedicated to Betty Lank in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston. Lank died at her home in Campobello Island at the age of 97 on March 10, 2001.

Sources: Galvin S, Dewan J, Rockoff MA. “Imagining in Time. Betty Lank: A Kind and Gentle Anesthetist Devoted to Children.” American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Journal. 2009; 76(3): 176-180.

Rockoff MA. Interview with Betty E. Lank, Children's Hospital Boston Oral History Collection 25. Boston, MA: Archives of Children's Hospital Boston. September 16, 1999.

Smith CA. The Children's Hospital of Boston: “Built Better Than They Knew.” Boston, MA: Little Brown and Co; 1983:196-200. Suy R. Surgical History, a History of Cardiac Surgery in Belgium. Acta Chir Belg. 2009; 109: 136-146. http://www.belsurg.org/uploaded_pdfs/109/109_136_146.pdf