Patricia Flint Borns, MD, FACR, a renowned pediatric radiologist, colleague, mentor and friend, died April 15, 2009 in Princeton, NJ at the age of 87 years following a head injury.

Born in Barstow, CA, Dr. Borns resided in Philadelphia for most of her life before moving to Princeton in 2007. She received her B.Sc. from Purdue University and the same year married Bill Borns, a quiet, supporting force who stood beside her for more than 50 years. She graduated from the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. The same year she gave birth to a son. She completed her internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, which stood on the current site of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Her daughter was born during the time she was rotating at CHOP as a radiology resident from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she trained under Dr. Henry Pendergrass.

Following her residency, she joined the staff at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she practiced for 5 years. Subsequently, she joined Dr. John Hope at CHOP, with whom she worked until his death in 1969. The CHOP Radiology Department is named in his memory. During the 1950s and 1960s, Drs. Hope and Borns were among the pioneers of pediatric radiology. Dr. Borns was one of the first observers of abnormal peristalsis in Hirschsprung disease, as well as pneumatosis of the bowel wall in children with immune suppression.

From 1969 to 1971, she served as acting director of the Department of Radiology at CHOP.

Dr. Borns was a remarkable radiologist. She always amazed everyone by recalling the details of cases from many years earlier. She noticed everything that was on a plain film and invariably knew just what it meant. She had great intuitive diagnostic ability. She would frequently walk by a view-box and immediately make the correct diagnosis of an obscure illness without slowing down.

During this period at CHOP she became a Fellow of the American College of Radiology.

Dr. Borns left CHOP in 1974 to head the radiology departments first at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and shortly thereafter at A.I. duPont Institute for Children in Wilmington, DE. In 1983, Dr. Borns returned to CHOP and was appointed a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She remained at CHOP until her retirement in 1990.

For nearly 30 years, Dr. Borns was the heartbeat, brain, and dedicated soul of the Radiology Department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was a gifted radiologist and teacher and twice received the distinguished teaching award at CHOP (1968 and 1973). In 1995, she received the Richard D. Wood Alumni Award from CHOP, which reads:

“To Patricia Flint Borns, M.D., outstanding alumna, a most distinguished Pediatric Radiologist, teacher, valued friend and colleague. April 7, 1995.”

In 1996 she received the Outstanding Educator Award of the Philadelphia Roentgen Ray Society.

During the course of her career, she received numerous professional awards for her clinical excellence, academic publications and distinguished teaching. However, the foremost accomplishment of her 45-year career was her intelligence, talent, and dedication to countless numbers of severely ill children.

Patricia F. Borns was the daughter of the late Lyle and Eva Sallee Flint and wife of the late William J. Borns. She is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, David J. and Kelly R. Borns of Albuquerque, NM; a daughter and son-in-law, Jane A. Borns and William J. Hurlin, and a grandson, David L. Hurlin, of Princeton, NJ.