Sid Watkins the Formula One Doctor Who Made Racing Safer
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
OBITUARIES Sid Watkins The Formula One doctor who made racing safer Eric Sidney Watkins OBE, professor of After Senna’s death Max Mosley, the recently neurology, (b 1928; q University of Liverpool appointed president of motorsport’s govern- 1952; FRCS), died from complications ing body the Fédération Internationale de of cancer on 12 September 2012 l’Automobile, gave Watkins the job of improving safety, and he assembled a team of engineering In his memoir of his career as the Formula One experts and scientists. The team researched and doctor, Sid Watkins describes how he urged the introduced the collapsible steering column; pro- racing driver Ayrton Senna not to drive on the tective foam around the top of the cockpit; new circuit at Imola in Italy, the day after Roland crash tests for front, rear, and side impacts; and Ratzenburger was killed in practice and two days the head and neck support device that must be after another promising young driver, Rubens worn by every driver. Barichello, was injured.1 Watkins also recommended changes to the Watkins told Senna: “You have been world tracks, redesigning them so that they could champion three times, you are obviously the absorb the energy of a crashing vehicle and made quickest driver. Give it up and let’s go fishing.” the bends safer. There has not been a death or Senna replied: “Sid, there are certain things over serious injury in Formula One since Senna’s which we have no control. I cannot quit, I have to death at Imola. Watkins’ work also influenced go on.” Hours later the charismatic Brazilian was the design of road cars, as the Fédération Inter- killed on the track. nationale de l’Automobile worked with the Euro- Senna’s death deeply affected Watkins, a pean Commission on improving crash tests and professor of neurosurgery. Manish Pandey, an car safety. orthopaedic surgeon and screenwriter who got to Watkins’ love of motorsport dated from his know Watkins when researching the filmSenna , childhood in Liverpool, where his family owned says that Watkins and the charismatic Brazilian a garage and bike shop. He studied medicine at enjoyed a father and son relationship. They stayed SUTTONIMAGES/CORBIS Liverpool University and then trained as a neuro- at each other’s houses, knew each other’s fami- surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, from lies, and went fishing together on Senna’s estate By 1994 things had changed beyond all rec- where he would visit the Silverstone racing circuit. in Brazil. ognition, and today’s race tracks have medical He was appointed professor of neurosurgery at The two became close when Watkins, known facilities that would shame many NHS hospitals. Syracuse Hospital in New York, where he worked on the circuit as “Prof,” treated Senna for Bell’s “His whole thing was to make sure the facili- as the track doctor at the Watkins Glen racetrack. palsy in 1984. Senna was relatively new to the ties were fantastic and to make sure the person- In 1970 he was appointed the first professor of Grand Prix circuit and didn’t want to miss a race. nel were top notch. Modern [Formula One] circuits neurosurgery at the Royal London Hospital. “Prof gave him steroids and covered for him. have mini-operating theatres; they have anaes- One of his colleagues at the Royal London, He knew that he was fit to race. thetists, orthopaedic surgeons, Alastair Wilson, lead surgeon in emergency medi- That’s where the bond started,” At a track in Argentina general surgeons,” says Pandey. cine, remembers a larger than life character who, Pandey said. in 1978, his first job Hugh Scully, professor of car- with his cigar habitually clamped in his mouth, “On that day in Imola, Prof was to sweep the dead diac surgery at the University of would be ready with a glass of whisky at the end knew Senna was distraught. He flies from the shed that Toronto and a member of the of a shift. regretted that he wasn’t more had been allocated as a Formula One team of specialists, Watkins campaigned for an air ambulance for forceful and hadn’t been able to medical facility says Watkins was meticulous in London, which the capital finally got in 1990. stop him racing,” said Pandey. his preparation: “He would do After an intense bidding war, the Royal London Before Senna’s death Watkins’ main role had an inspection of the teams positioned around the won the right to have the helicopter based there, been to improve medical facilities on the track, circuit several times each day over the course of and its helipad became operational in 1991. It which, when he was appointed Formula One the race to ensure that everything was in place.” frustrated Watkins that the UK was one of the last medical delegate by Bernie Ecclestone in 1978, Scully adds: “Michael Schumacher said that countries in western Europe to get an air ambu- were fairly rudimentary. when Sid was on the track ‘we all feel safe.’” lance, said Wilson. In the foreword to Watkins’ book, the racing Watkins also insisted on tracks having heli- Wilson said, “He could not be doing with preju- driver Niki Lauda, who was badly burned in a race copter transport, and at one race in Belgium he dice. He hated people who were inflexible, and he in 1976, describes the circuit medical facilities in ordered that the start of a race be delayed while did exactly what he thought was right.” the 1970s as “haphazard in the extreme; you just a problem with a helicopter was fixed. When He leaves a wife, Susan, a playwright and his- crossed your fingers and hoped you would not officials questioned this, Ecclestone reportedly torian; four sons; and two daughters. have an accident at certain tracks.” Watkins told retorted, “What Prof says goes,” says Pandey. Anne Gulland journalist, London, UK Pandey how, at a track in Argentina in 1978, his Watkins also had doctors positioned around the [email protected] first job was to sweep the dead flies from the shed circuit so that they could get to accidents within References are in the version on bmj.com. that had been allocated as a medical facility. minutes, if not seconds. Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e7028 34 BMJ | 27 OCTOBER 2012 | VOLUME 345 OBITUARIES consultant dermatologist at the her death. Pippa enjoyed walking, Antony John King Fahad Hospital in Saudia cycling, and sailing. She loved travel Essex-Cater Arabia. Widowed before retirement, and was a keen gardener. She leaves he sold up in England and spent her husband, Paul, and a son. his summers in Cyprus and his J J Green, Mark Carri, Paul Emmett winters in the Rockies, indulging Claudia Schroder, Suma Paiyadi his lifelong interest in skiing. He Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e6311 was still practising as a consultant dermatologist in Paphos, at the time interest in physical medicine and Issy Pilowsky of his sudden death, shortly after rehabilitation. In 1947 he entered visiting his son in Israel. general practice in Scarborough but Tony Fincham maintained his links with the army Former medical officer of health Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e6463 and his interest in rehabilitation. Jersey (b 1923; q Charing Cross His main interest in practice, Hospital 1948; DCH RCP, DPH, Patricia Mathews however, were his patients and FFPH, AFOM RCP (Lond)), their families, and how mental d 5 January 2012. and physical illness affected their Antony John Essex-Cater (“Tony”) lives. He disliked the move to larger did his national service in the Royal group practices and the consequent Professor emeritus of psychiatry Air Force and entered public health in distancing from his patients, and he (b 1935; q 1957; MD, DPM, Croydon before touring the country was pleased to retire in 1980. His FRANZCP, FRCPsych, FRACP), with posts in Swansea, Birmingham, first wife, Catherine, died in 1985, died from a brain tumour on Manchester, and Monmouthshire. but he remarried and enjoyed a 17 August 2012. He was a member of the steering happy retirement. He leaves his Issy Pilowsky was awarded an MD committee for the reorganisation General practitioner Portadown wife, Mary; four children; and nine from the University of Cape Town for of the NHS for the Welsh Office, a (b 1955; q Belfast 1979), died grandchildren. his thesis on hypochondriasis, the founder member of the faculty of from metastatic breast disease on Ron McGill basis for his later work on abnormal community medicine, and medical 22 March 2012. Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e6454 illness behaviour. In 1959 he and officer for health on Jersey, where Patricia (“Trish”) Mathews (née his first wife left apartheid South he also worked as a venereologist. Carson) chose primary care as Philippa Anne Africa for England and Issy turned In retirement he visited Tonga for her specialty and on completion to psychiatry. In 1966 the Pilowsky the World Health Organization, to of general practitioner training Mitchelson family relocated to Australia, and assess the suitability of setting up a worked in the Bahamas for a short in 1971 Issy became professor health service on the island. For many time. She and husband Colin (also of psychiatry in Adelaide. He years Tony was the chairman of the a 1979 graduate) then moved to became increasingly interested in National Association of Maternal and Portadown to work together in the the concept of abnormal illness Child Welfare. Predeceased by a son, Orchard Family Practice. Away from behaviour, published on the he leaves his wife, Jane, and three work Trish was an enthusiastic subject, and developed a research children.