Dr. Donald B. Darling, who literally wrote the textbook on pediatric radiography, died of heart failure Nov. 16 in Cambridge, Mass., the Boston Globe reports. He was 85.

Darling, an early proponent of monitoring radiation exposure to children, helped improve the understanding of hiatal hernias, or hernias of the upper stomach, in children and infants, the Globe said. The three editions of his textbook on pediatric radiography, "Radiography on Infants and Children," became the standard text used in U.S. universities, according to the paper.

Darling, who received his medical degree from Georgetown University, worked for four years under one of the pioneers of pediatric radiology, John Caffey, at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, and went on to help found the John Caffey Society.

He joined the Boston Floating Hospital for Infants and Children, now Tufts New England Medical Center, in 1961. He retired in 2006.

Darling is survived by his wife, four children and nine grandchildren, the Globe said.

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