Milestones of the Heart and the Brain
In 1947, Nan Maling was a young student from New Zealand, working as a nurse at the Montreal Neurological Institute, when she met John Gordon, a patient who had come in for a follow-up exam. A relationship quickly blossomed, and when Nan and John were married in 1948, it was Dr. Wilder Penfield, the legendary founder of the MNI, who escorted the bride down the aisle.
Dr. Penfield and John Gordon shared another important milestone, this time in the operating room. Nan was later to write a novel in 1995, Footprints on the Heart, based on her husband’s life, in which she described the historic operation: “Grey, glistening and gelatinous, John’s exposed brain lay partially open … John was fully conscious. Dr. Penfield was mapping the living brain.”
During the operation, the neurosurgeon applied a tiny electrical current to different parts of John’s brain–sometimes stimulating memories of a musical passage, or a taste, or a smell. The project intrigued both men. As the novel’s character says to Penfield, “It all sounds so fascinating, Doc. I just wish I could be at your end of the exploration!”
Nan and John remained close to Dr. Penfield and the institute over the years. Before he died in 1960, John stipulated - at his wife's insistence - that after her death, half his estate would be directed to the MNI. Nan eventually married again, completed a Master's in Neuroscience and wrote a number of books, including her novel; she died in 2003. Today, the John F. and Nancy Maling Gordon Endowment Fund of $4.2-million is helping to build the MNI of the future, by supporting research, equipment acquisition, scholarships and salaries. Currently, $1-million has been allocated to the MNI’s North Wing project, which will create an expanded brain imaging centre, as well as more space for out¬patient clinical care and research in multiple sclerosis and experimental therapeutics.
Dr. Penfield’s research transformed neuroscience, placing McGill and the MNI at the very forefront of the field. In Nan’s novel, Penfield says, “We owe you… a great deal of gratitude, John, for having the courage to allow us to do this mapping. And I hope, indeed I know, that other lives will be saved because of it.”With the help of the Gordons’ generous bequest, Penfield’s successors will continue to reach new milestones, advance research and save lives.
