"In 1970, according to the 2008 book "Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic" by Pamela Weintraub, Scrimenti took a novel approach in treating a mysterious malady in one of his patients."
http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/scrimenti-was-pioneer-in-lyme-disease-treatment-b89c345-200819001.html
RUDOLPH J. SCRIMENTI
Scrimenti was pioneer in Lyme disease treatment
Rudolph J. Scrimenti, a dermatologist who was a pioneer in the treatment of Lyme disease in the United States, died March 22, having reached his goal to live to the age of 80 - for one day.
Scrimenti's daughter said her father, born into an Italian immigrant family in Brooklyn, was the first person in the family to pursue an education beyond the eighth grade.
"Dad knew at age 5 he wanted to get out of the ghetto and become a doctor," Linda Scrimenti wrote in an email.
Scrimenti would go on to receive a college degree from St. John's University in New York City and pursue his medical studies at Marquette University.
In 1970, according to the 2008 book "Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic" by Pamela Weintraub, Scrimenti took a novel approach in treating a mysterious malady in one of his patients.
Lyme disease is named after a town in Connecticut where outbreaks were identified in children in the 1970s, but it might more aptly be called Milwaukee disease.
"The first American physician to document what would soon be called Lyme disease came not from Connecticut but Wisconsin," Weintraub wrote. "Rudolph Scrimenti, a dermatologist at the Marquette School of Medicine in Milwaukee, was drawn into the arena by a patient, a 57-year-old physician who had gone grouse hunting in October 1968 in north central Wisconsin.
"The patient, who recalled a tick bite at the site of what had become an expanding red rash, had been hospitalized for complaints of headache, malaise, and a dull, radiating pain over his right hip. But no one could find the source of distress."
Weintraub noted that Scrimenti recalled learning as a student that a Swedish physician treated a similar rash with antibiotics.
"Scrimenti decided to do likewise. He treated the patient with intramuscular penicillin, and forty-eight hours later the patient was symptom free," Weintraub wrote.
Daughter Linda said before her father became a physician he worked as a shoeshine boy, a garment worker, a waiter and a chemist. His son Mark said he also served in the Navy and helped evacuate Guantanamo Bay's civilians during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
"He was a self-made man," said Mark Scrimenti. "In some ways, a classic American dream story. Poor, born in the Depression and worked hard."
Scrimenti is survived by his two children and wife of more than 50 years, Annerose, as well as extended family.
Rudolph J. Scrimenti
A memorial service is planned for April 13 at Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Mequon. Visitation is at 1 p.m. with a service at 2 and reception to follow
