News from John Axton

 

I'm fortunately healthy, minus prostate, and disease -free after 15 years. I continue to row twice a week in a Quad, walk with old medical friends, and try to be self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit.I continue to play French Horn in an Octet I founded 40 years ago on arriving in Derby, and in an orchestra in Nottingham. (Friends may remember that I used to play Bass Trombone) My wife, Alison, a violinist, (ex nurse from St Thomas'), runs two Quartets, and plays in several local orchestras. So, all-in-all, we are very fortunate.

                                             

Nigel Harper

After qualifying I returned to the Northwest and did various jobs around Lancashire before training in Manchester as a geriatrician under Professor Brocklehurst. During this time I kept up my interest in caving and took part in a number of international expeditions including one which broke the world depth record.

I got married and started having children so felt it unwise to continue caving. I obtained a consultant post at Fazakerley Hospital, North Liverpool, this eventually changed it's name to the University Hospital Aintree as nobody knew where Fazakerley was, nor could they pronounce it. Thus began 25 enjoyable years creating a Geriatric unit and fighting the system. We developed special interests in stroke management, metabolic bone disease and tissue viability. Towards the end of this period my marriage broke up and I bought a semi derelict house as a retirement project. Unfortunately I was still working so it proved a somewhat stressful if eventuallyprofitable enterprise.

I have three children(girl/boy/girl) by my first marriage now distressingly middle-aged. The eldest lives in Kent. She spent a lot of time working for various charities, most recently a refugee charity.To further this work she qualified as a barrister in middle life. This year she married her (female) partner of 15 years.

My son has recently bought a house in London. He has worked for various pharmaceutical companies and spent some years in China. He now works for Ventura and is currently coping with the takeover by Philip Morris. He remains unmarried and spends his free time training for triathlon events.

The youngest is living in Liverpool. She struggled with dyslexia when young but is now working for the Health and Safety Executive. She did think of becoming a nurse but was told that nursing was all about writing essays and that she would not be able to cope!! She is married and has two sons still at school.

In 2000 I re-married, Pam, another geriatrician somewhat younger than me. Initially we lived apart, as she was working in Scotland and I in Liverpool. During this time we managed a trip to Antarctica. After I retired we moved to Edinburgh. Pam was still working so I kept house and spent my time gardening. Her mother developed dementia so it fell to me to look after her. An interesting exercise in practical geriatrics,

Pam is very keen on classical music so apart from attending concerts throughout the year we also spend time at the Edinburgh Festivals. Because of this, “summer” holidays are taken in the autumn, usually walking on one of the Atlantic islands. We have also had holidays in the Scottish \islands.

Once the children had left home I took up skiing. Recently we have tended to go downhill skiing in the Alps in January or February and a crosscountry holiday in Scandinavia in March. Of course all this stopped in March 2020. Since then I have spent most of my time gardening. Pam is involved in three charities and has been largely able to keep up this work by Zoom. Apart from this we have mostly spent our time hiding from the virus.

PS (see pictures, above): I also grow pineapples and have produced a spurtle by bodging. NH

Michael O'Brien

It is now 10 years since I contributed a blog for our 50^th. reunion in 2012. So here is an update for our 60^th. reunion. When I retired from the NHS in 2003 as was then compulsory, now considered ageist, I was also Consultant Neurologist to the Civil Aviation Authority who showed no signs of wanting me to retire, so I have continued in this position. They supplied me with a laptop which gives me access to their databases so that I could work from home during the lockdowns and I have only been in to Gatwick twice in the last 30 months. I report on the fitness to fly for all pilots who have had a neurological problem, but this is only about six a month, so not very demanding. The range of conditions is amazing and much more interesting than a routine NHS clinic and has led to seven publications. I continued to teach at the National Hospital for Neurology at Queen Square until the lockdowns and also continue to teach medical students at Kings College London, by Zoom during the lockdowns, now back to face to face. I also teach on the MSc Neurosciences course and the Aviation Medical course at KCL

I have continued to travel extensively, mostly to South Asia, though this has been on hold for the last three years. I am about to complete a book on Hindu Mythology, the subject of many lectures in the UK and abroad. The 6^th.edition of ‘Aids to the examination of the peripheral nervous system’ a booklet I inherited from Dr McArdle in 1976, has just been published by Elsevier and I am nearing completion of a book on the neurological examination to be published by Oxford University Press. I had a most enjoyable year as President of the Medical Society of London in 2015-16. I have continued as Chairman of the Medical Artists Education Trust and as a Director of the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, a position I inherited from Bob Knight when he died so unexpectedly in 2005. I remained Chairman of the Friends of Guy’s Hospital, inherited from Omar Shaheen, until I could hand over to Michael Gleeson in 2016.

I look forward to seeing you all at the reunion

 

Robert Sells

It would not have been too much to ask of Fate for a quiet winding-down of a chap’s affairs after retirement – restore the Lotus 7, build that model of the Mary Rose, visit grand-children……   Like most of my predictions, I got it wrong: the “phoney” retirement evaporated and we’ve had such a white-knuckle, exciting and demanding decade since our 50th class anniversary.   

Our good news has come from family -  the two sons in regular employment, a profusion of amazing grandchildren – some cousins have produced only girls so the family’s future is guaranteed straight, narrow and unswervingly de-prejudiced – and Paula created a thoroughbred racing Syndicate from which herd two flat-racer mares, Welsh Sunrise and Welsh Moonlight got 5 wins and 4 second between them.  But sadly my alpaca herd failed when the cost of spinning primary fleece rose to £50/kg (we provided 70 kg/ year). 

Then came fun, shrouded in disaster’s clothes:  In 2018 I developed  end-stage renal failure (allergic nephritis due to Lansoprazole* sensitivity).  Some of you may recall that my main interest after Monteverdi was (is still, vide infra) renal and pancreas transplantation, so you will appreciate my astonishment that I should become a patient, diagnosed with a disease  for which I had been “dishing it out” to thousands of other people over 41 years .  I’ve not yet found another transplant surgeon whom Fate has chosen for such a familiar and interesting diagnosis.  Urgent advice was obtained from my very old friend, nephrologist, guru and “skin-graft brother”, Stewart Cameron**.  Whilst on peritoneal dialysis I waited patiently for the Liverpool MDC verdict on a transplant for this 81 -year-old chronic bronchitic.  The 50:50 vote on whether Paula’s left kidney should be transplanted in me created a suspicion that some members felt uncomfortable that they might be on call on the night that the old Unit Director turned up his toes with post-op pneumonitis.  The casting vote in favour came from my old friend and director Abdul Hamad.  The real heroine, Paula, with radiologically normal kidneys, stepped forward and the day before her birthday gave me her left kidney,  Abdul officiating.  3 years later my renal function is normal and Paula is very fit.  We had never needed or desired to demonstrate  our compatibility.  But disturbingly,  the HLA mismatch showed complete incompatibility.  The clinical risk of rejection was substantially reduced by a tiny dose of the monoclonal CamPath, which has effectively reduced my blood lymphocyte count to the occasional effete, fugitive cell seen on high power microscopy, once in a blue moon.

Then there was….  But I’ve talked too much.. See you all Saturday and I look forward to it.

Best,  Robert.

*Half the Western world takes Lansoprazole; rarely, sensitivity to the drug causes renal failure in the young, according to the somewhat equivocal literature.  Evidently youth is not an essential requirement…

** Guy’s Immunologist Prof Richard Batchelor (whom you will all remember) was a pioneer investigator in the effect of HLA mismatching on the prognosis after a renal transplant.  To do this , Richard recruited volunteers in whom anti- HLA antibodies, potentially useful for tissue-typing, were evoked by exchanging 2 skin grafts, 2 months apart.  Stewart and I each have the scars to prove it.  Stewart developed a useful antibody;  I did not.

 

Anne Chamberlain Update of blog dated 1 August 2011: "What do I do now?"

Life is quieter now .I often walk in one of the largest and

most beautiful parks in England, Roundhay Park, at the end

of my road.

In terms of Medicine and specifically, the specialty of

Rehabilitation Medicine, I am a trustee of Global

Rehabilitation, a very small charity that links with colleagues

whom we have taught, in Madagascar. We are expecting to

do more on- line teaching soon and visit the country in

2023.However, my clinical experience ended in 2007 so I will

not go.

I remain a trustee of the William Merritt Disabled Living

Centre in Leeds which gives professional advice to disabled

and older people and those who care for them, mainly on

equipment, which can be viewed, and on driving with a

disability.

Within the University dept., I still supervise a very small

number of clinical students doing an Intercalated Degree in

International Health .This is highly enjoyable.

I was president and am now a member of the Leeds Medico-

Chirurgical Society .These societies served as a meeting point

for GPs and consultants before the NHS .Few survive.

I enjoy ceramic and art exhibitions, and the cinema but am

not as sociable as before the pandemic.

John Maile

  

From Guys I started house jobs in May 1961 in Brighton, as casualty/orthopaedic H S at the Royal Sussex County Hospital (a classic Barry, Victorian building).

The work was varied, and plentiful.  My bedroom was located between two wards, with views down to the sea.The orthopaedic women’s ward was one floor down with “extra beds” in permanent use, and the casualty area one floor below. Action central! 120 hours a week was the normal.

A good snowfall brought 36 broken wrists one day; a chance to improve one’s technique, with follow up some days later. But a head in a biscuit tin in the ambulance from the railway, needing death certification  got no follow up. A slice through a cornea from a broken mirror in a car accident of a professional cricketer was sent on to the eye hospital with good results.

After 6 months the H P job was different with an older, sicker  clientele, and a depressing death rate, but the learning experience, and talented consultants were the positives.

The bright event was the annual Christmas hospital dinner/dance, held in the Royal Pavillion ballroom,where one of our junior doctors, a member of the Magic Circle, demonstrated his skills, with one success, followed by a failure that I can still see in my mind today.

My application for the obstetric job at the Brighton general hospital was accepted. My 6 months there was with a talented registrar, Geoffery (Bodger) Chamberlain. Every day working with him was a joy. Still only 2 housemen, so 120 hour weeks. And my colleague was carrying a growing pregnancy herself!

I remained at Brighton General for another 14 months as orthopaedic SHO, and married Susan, and had some dinghy racing wins in Merlin/Rockets.

Early June 1964 saw us embark on MV Franconia,  sailing from Southampton to Montreal, through 2 days of Atlantic gales, then calmer waters, with wales and icebergs to see.

We had a Ford Cortina with us, and had a steady cross country drive of 3000 miles to Vancouver, for me to start a years anaesthesia residency. We realised the size of Canada by then.

At the end of the year, I accepted a position doing general practice with anaesthesia and obstetrics, in the centre of British Columbia in Quesnel. The population served was 27,000 with a main road going north and south, with towns 75 miles away in either direction. There was an 80 bed hospital, 2 surgeons and 8 GPs. the surgeons handled everything but head and chest surgeries,and fractured hips, but burr holes occasionally arose as being needed, and broken necks were stabilised, and sent to Vancouver.

As anaesthetist there was plenty to do , and I was able to handle some fractures and carpal tunnel surgeries, along with Caesarean sections which over 50 years have totalled over 1,000.

We did shifts in the emergency room, and did family doctoring in our offices. Anyone seen there and sick enough, was sent to the hospital, where we also looked after them.

The ambulance service in 1965 was provided by the local taxi service and operator, who ran a 1950’s station wagon, one bed with an impressive siren on the roof! In the event of a call, a doctor was asked to ride along with black bag.With temperatures down to –40 and plenty of snow, traffic accidents could be a feature, and the tally of deaths before seat belts were mandatory was significant.

After a year, the offer of a partnership was accepted. Our son arrived, with two more to follow, and we were able to get on with building a house.

I had done some flying locally, which showed the amazing countryside to east and west, but after a few autopsies on plane crash victims, that activity faded, and I did pilot medical exams only.

There were lakes close by, so we did water skiing and fishing, and skiing on a local hill in the winter. I joined the local  ski patrol and was with them 29 years.

One Saturday afternoon I was in the emergency room, and an older man from out in the backwoods came in: “There is no vet in town, and I have a dog with porcupine quills in its muzzle, would you help, please”. So I had a look, a fierce looking dog, used for chasing cougars, with about 100 quills around mouth and face. They needed pliers to pull them out, and I needed anaesthesia to do that, and my training did not cover dogs, except to say they could easily fibrillate.

In the 1980s I  took a sailing course, with colleagues, to enable us to charter sailing yachts out of Vancouver. We had trips sailing in Greece, Croatia, the Caribbean and around France and UK.

I have lived through a major evolution of medicine, and demographics have changed. We used to do ulcer surgery regularly, now it is laparoscopic surgery. Medications have improved, and we have seen new illnesses, cardiac management has evolved. We had the first ICU of a small hospital, along with dedicated internist. the hospital has shrunk to 33 beds, with expansion of the administrative staff occupying rooms formerly having beds for patients.

Our ambulance system is now modern, with proper vehicles and staff. Even air ambulances have now removed the need for me  to accompany a patient with dissecting aneurysm from a car accident, or a spinal fracture on a ventilator in a military flight to Vancouver. I will no longer have to ventilate my Guillaume Barre patient here for 10 days myself.

In 2005 I retired from full time practice after 40 years. I did some locums and remained on the C.Section call list 1 week a month. I then found i could do 2 or 3 mornings a week in the operating room,assisting in the larger cases of general surgery, orthopaedics and obstetrics/ gynaecology.

in March, I had pneumonia, so took full retirement. Up till then I had felt it to be a pity to discard all that accumulated experience.

Mary Dowsett (nee MacKeith)

 

I retired from my post of Consultant in Community Gynaecology for the east London borough of Waltham Forest nearly twenty years ago. I continue to live in Woodford Green where I moved in 1966 on my marriage to Peter. We are blessed with reasonably good health and are able to be active in our local church and to enjoy our garden. We have two sons and eight grand children, none of whom are showing an interest in Medicine. One granddaughter is about to start a huge postgraduate course in Physiotherapy at Kings College Hospital during which she is likely to spend some time at Guys.