William H. Boyce, MD, arrived at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in 1952 and became involved in many groundbreaking projects.
Intrigued by the story of a Chicago woman initially believed to have frozen to death on the street but who was later revived as her body temperature rose, Boyce developed a similar technique for treating large kidney stones.
Rather than having to sacrifice a diseased kidney to remove stones, his technique, known as anatrophic nephrolithotomy, kept the kidney cooled by an ice bath during surgery. His method allowed for corrective surgery while saving the kidney. It became standard procedure for removing large stones.