David Gordon Jagelman
December 18, 1939 – August 9, 1993

David Gordon Jagelman, M.D. was known as one of the world’s most renowned colorectal surgeons. His patients remember him as caring, compassionate and a skilled doctor, full of vigor and dedicated to his work. He enjoyed meeting and helping patients and sharing his remarkable fund of knowledge with his fellow physicians.

Dr. Jagelman was born in London, England on December 18, 1939. He received his medical degree from the Westminster Medical School in 1963. He trained in surgery in London, and appointed as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

He was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1970, and he was awarded the prestigious Master of Surgery in 1973.

In 1974 he came to The Cleveland Clinic for special training in colorectal surgery. In 1975 he was hired as a staff physician in the Department of Colorectal Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

He refined many surgical techniques for the treatment of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, colon and rectal cancer, including the use of a staple gun to connect damaged areas of the colon, thereby avoiding a colostomy. He improved quality of life for many patients.

He was an active member of professional societies in the United States and England, and an officer of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.

He frequently lectured and was a visiting professor at medical seminars around the world. During his career, he published nearly 200 textbook chapters, journal articles and video presentations.

Perhaps his most notable accomplishment was the founding in 1979 of the Cleveland Clinic’s Familial Polyposis Registry in the Department of Colorectal Surgery. As the director of the registry he and his staff worked to educate and prevent colon cancer by tracking thousands of diagnosed and at risk people with the diseases. As a consequence many people have lived fuller and healthier lives.

In 1985 the first meeting of the Leed’s Castle Polyposis Group met in England with Dr. Jagelman being instrumental in its founding and direction. Today, this international group of physicians, researchers, geneticists, and other health care providers meet bi-annually to study all aspects of familial polyposis and hereditary colon cancer.

In 1988, when Cleveland Clinic Florida opened, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There he became Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery, Division of Surgery and a member of the Board of Governors, as well as Chairman of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital.

In October 1992, he was listed as one of the best cancer specialists in the United States by Good Housekeeping magazine.

He was married to Ann McAdden, a nurse, whom he met while interning at the Westminster Hospital in London. They were married in 1965 and had four children, Sally, Richard, Jane, and Amanda.

Dr. Jagelman died of kidney cancer on August 9, 1993 at his home in Fort Lauderdale. At the time of his death, Dr. Floyd Loop, CEO of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation said, “His untimely death was most unfortunate, not only for his family and The Cleveland Clinic, but for the thousands of patients he had helped in the past and would have helped in the future.”

Dr. Jagelman is still missed by his peers and his patients today. Those that had the opportunity and honor to know him can agree with his associate, Steven D. Wexner, M.D. a colorectal surgeon at Cleveland Clinic Florida, who said “We will miss him forever. Seldom has there been such a dedicated, altruistic, caring and skilled physician.”

James Church, M.D. a colorectal surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation was Dr. Jagelman’s resident for a year and his colleague and friend for many more. He felt that, “his death leaves an unfillable void in the specialty of colorectal surgery and in the comradeship of our profession.” In his honor, Dr. Church renamed the registry to The David G. Jagelman Inherited Colorectal Cancer Registries.

Dr. Church, director of the registries – along with his staff – are dedicated to continuing Dr. Jagelman’s work of educating patients about colorectal cancer and its treatments, and encouraging those at risk to seek advice and be examined.