Peter B. Cotton

Peter Cotton is a retired Professor of Medicine. Born and trained in England, he moved to USA in 1986 to Duke University in Durham, NC. He moved again to Charleston,SC, in 1994 to establish the Digestive Disease Center at the Medical University. He is known throughout the world for his expertise, innovation, research and teaching in the use of endoscopy procedures to diagnose and manage many GI problems that previously needed surgery. He named the procedure for treating biliary and pancreatic problems: ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde CholangioPancreatography). He has authored popular textbooks, published almost 1,000 scientific articles and lectured in more than 50 countries. Now living on Dewees Island SC, he enjoys writing booksfor young children about Fred the friendly snake. The first one "When Fred the Snake got Squished and Mended" was a bed-time story for his children when small, to teach them how (not) to cross the road. When they had their children, they asked "what happened to Fred-Fred?". Peter revamped the text, found a wonderful illustrator (Bonnie Lemaire in Canada) and started publishing. There are now 8 popular books in the series (www.petercottontales.com). He has also published his memoirs, "The tunnel at the end of the light; my endoscopic journey in six decades".