DALLAS (AP) _ Dr. Gary Purdue, chief of the burn section at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and co-director of the Parkland Memorial Hospital burn unit in Dallas for 22 years, has died in a motorcycle crash. He was 65.
A Dallas police report says Purdue died Sunday when a car slammed into the motorcycle he was driving on a north Dallas street Sunday morning. No arrest was made, but the police report shows the car’s driver under investigation for possibly being intoxicated.
According to a UT Southwestern statement, Purdue was a past president of the American Burn Association and a burn specialist who was instrumental in leading the Parkland burn unit to national prominence. The unit is one of the nation’s largest and treats almost 1,000 burn patients a year.
Purdue is survived by his wife, daughter, three sons and a grandson
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)