Dr Leo Joseph McCarthy MD, FRCP Edin, FRCPI

Dr Leo Joseph McCarthy MD, FRCP Edin, FRCPI

Born July 27, 1939 Omaha, Nebraska

Died May 12, 2025, Indianapolis, Indiana, of metastatic skin cancer

A respected American haematologist and transfusion authority. 

Born in Nebraska in 1939, Leo Jospeh McCarthy graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Medicine at the University of Nebraska and received his MD from their College of Medicine in 1964. In 1967 he volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War and was a Navy Battalion Surgeon for a period during the conflict. He remained in the Reserve, eventually retiring with the rank of Commander.

After a pathology residency at Stanford University, his entire career was based at Indiana University Medical Center, where he latterly served as Professor of Medicine from 1991 until his retirement in 2003. He became a renowned expert on blood transfusion as a pioneer in this area, and served for many years as the Medical Center’s Director of Transfusion Medicine. He also published extensively, authoring more than 300 articles, books, and chapters and was much sought after as a speaker in his areas of expertise, namely haematology, pathology and radiology. In the 1980s he completed a sabbatical in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. 

Leo McCarthy received many honours throughout his career but was always especially proud of his Fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh and Ireland.  Passionate also about both medical education and the history of medicine, his legacy lives on through an accredited fellowship in Transfusion Medicine in collaboration with the Indiana Blood Center, an endowed lectureship with Riley Children’s Foundation and named library rooms at Indiana University and the University of Nebraska medical schools. 

A warm man who loved fitness and travel, he also had a deep Catholic faith. Leo McCarthy enjoyed a very happy marriage of 43 years with Susan Prenatt McCarthy who survives him.