A plastic surgeon, Cannon helped care for the survivors of a fire at Boston’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub in 1942, where nearly 500 people were killed. Cannon and another doctor devised a way to treat burns on the survivors which was so effective that it became standard treatment in burn cases, most notably for soldiers in World War II.
“Plastic surgery nowadays is seen as simply cosmetic nip-tuck kind of work,” said Dr. Atul Gawande of the Harvard School of Public Health. “But [Cannon] was a pioneer in the under-recognized and incredibly challenging field of reconstructive surgery — in particular for burn victims.” He put his skills to work during the war, performing more than 15,000 restorative surgeries on casualties. He died at his daughter’s home on December 20 from pneumonia. He was 98.