Rory Childers Expert in Heart Disease and Electrocardiography
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OBITUARIES Rory Childers Expert in heart disease and electrocardiography Rory Childers (b 1931; q Trinity Beginning in 1959, and armed with cardiac College, Dublin, 1954), died from knowledge acquired in Boston, Childers oper- cardiac arrest on 27 August 2014. ated two of the first cardiac catheterisation laboratories in Dublin and lectured in cardiac Rory Childers was born into a distinguished fam- physiology at Trinity College. From 1960 to ily in Ireland. His father was the country’s fourth 1963 he also headed research in Ireland for president, and his grandfather a famous author the Harvard School of Public Health’s Ireland- and Irish nationalist. But to several generations Boston Diet-Heart Study, the initial phase of medical students during nearly half a century of which he designed.5 During this period at the University of Chicago, Childers was known Childers served as best man for a friend’s wed- as “the ECG guy.” ding in New York City and met Michele Javsicas. The nickname came from Childers’s interna- They married six months later. In Dublin, the tional reputation as an authority on the use and Childers home was a magnet for well known interpretation of electrocardiograms (ECGs). creative people. Visitors included Hollywood He read an estimated 50 000 ECGs per year and film director John Huston and Irish writer helped pioneer the development of computer- Brendan Behan. ised diagnosis of disorders seen on ECG. He was In 1963 Childers moved to the University particularly interested in the behaviour of the of Chicago as a cardiology fellow, working repolarisation phase of the electrocardiogram, with Hans Hecht and Murray Rabinowitz. He which can provide subtle and overt warnings of joined the faculty as assistant professor of impending catastrophe. To several generations of medical medicine in 1964, becoming a full professor in Author of nearly 100 papers on electrocardi- students during nearly half a 1976. He served for nearly 50 years as execu- ography, Childers was recruited by the American century at the University of Chicago, tive director of the university’s heart station, Heart Association as a core member of inter- Childers was known as “the ECG guy” which performs cardiac testing for patients. He national teams assembled to standardise and served as ed itorial consultant or board mem- update the interpretation of ECGs. Work from Riddle of the Sands, considered the first modern ber for s everal heart journals, and in 2011 was the project was published in a series of detailed spy thriller; and Mary “Molly” Childers, daughter elected president of the International Society reports in 2007 and 2009.1-4 of prominent Boston doctor Hamilton Osgood, for C omputerized Electrocardiology. The updating and standardisation of elec- who had studied under Louis Pasteur. In 1914 As a teacher at Chicago, Childers—“the ECG trocardiography was long overdue. Michael Robert used his yacht to smuggle guns and ammu- guy”—was legendary, winning the award for Murphy, who first met Childers in the 1980s nition from Germany to Ireland for use in the bat- teacher of the year in the cardiology section while working in clinical pharmacology and tle for Irish independence. He was executed in more than a dozen times. In 2005 the award cardiology at Chicago, says that while use of 1922 after civil war broke out between opposing was renamed the Rory Childers Teaching Award. ECG recording increased dramatically during groups of the new Irish Free State. “In teaching cardiology and physical diagnosis, the 20th century, the technology “demanded a Childers’ son Peter says that his father was Rory had a magical combination of a thespian’s sophisticated capacity for interpretation” that particularly close to his American grandmother, humor and scholarly precision that captivated most practising physicians did not possess. Molly, adding: “She was an influence and role multiple generations of students,” says Martin “Rory championed computerised electro- model, and she exemplified this intrepid intel- Burke, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Uni- cardiography,” says Murphy, now president of lectual and moral courage and openness—all versity of Chicago. University College Cork in Ireland. “The stand- strongly infused with social justice and service.” During the last 50 years of his life, Childers ardisation of interpretation of ECG, transform- By the time Childers was 15, he had decided to maintained close connections with Irish medi- ing it from an unreliable art to a reproducible, become a doctor. But he also loved literature and cine and cardiology, and mentored many young objective, mathematical process, was a very sig- made the decision to study French and English Irish doctors in Chicago. In July 2014, at the nificant endeavour. Rory was at the vanguard of literature at Trinity College, Dublin. He earned invitation of Irish President Michael D Higgins, the movement.” those degrees in 1953, and qualified in medi- Childers travelled to Ireland to attend a com- Roderick (Rory) Winthrop Childers was born cine in 1954. This was followed by internships memoration of the 100th anniversary of his on 2 June 1931 in Paris, where his father was in medicine and surgery in London. grandfather’s 1914 gun smuggling operation. working. The family moved to Ireland soon After a residency in 1956 at the Royal City Higgins issued a statement honouring Childers after, settling in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin, of Dublin Hospital, he was awarded a one year after his death.6 while spending summers at the ancestral home fellowship in cardiology in Boston at Massa- Childers leaves his wife, Michele; and two in Glendalough. Childers’ father, Erskine Ham- chusetts General Hospital, which is affiliated to sons. His family has set up a website for him ilton Childers, was elected fourth president of Harvard University. After one more year of train- (http://rorychilders.tumblr.com/). Ireland in 1973. ing in Dublin, he received his medical doctorate Ned Stafford Hamburg [email protected] Childers’ paternal grandparents were Robert from Trinity College in 1958 with the thesis “The References are on thebmj.com. Erskine Childers, author of the 1903 novel The Electrocardiogram in Mitral Valve Stenosis.” Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g6729 the bmj | 31 January 2015 25 OBITUARIES elected member of the local medical committee. He retired in 1993, was Thomas Anthony Piers committee. A keen dinghy sailor, he soon elected a governor of the West Clarke went on flotilla sailing holidays in the Suffolk Hospital, and served on many Mediterranean and had a yacht on disciplinary hearings. Recreationally he the south coast, enjoying watching loved walking, reading, gardening, and the solar eclipse of 1999 from the the arts. Predeceased by two wives, he middle of the English Channel. After leaves three children, two stepchildren, retiring in 1990 he found pleasure in and 10 grandchildren. classical music concerts and playing Vivian Livingston was the first person Michael Helliwell bridge. Predeceased by his wife in in his family to go to university. After Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7511 2002, he leaves four children and 10 qualifying he married Rhoda and Former general practitioner Exeter, grandchildren. completed national service as a Henry Alfred Milne Devon (b 1924; q Guy’s Hospital Liz Clark, doctor in the Royal Air Force, after 1953), d 23 October 2014. Caroline Jones which he became a GP. He worked Having qualified as a pilot in southern Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7468 in the Glasgow East End as a GP Rhodesia, Thomas Anthony Piers for nearly 40 years and during his Clarke (“Tom”) was discharged from Carys Mair Graham long career was also a GP trainer the Royal Air Force in 1946. He and member of the Royal Infirmary studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital, board. He was doctor to the merchant and, after house jobs at the Royal ships coming to Glasgow docks, Devon and Exeter Hospital, he joined the Glasgow blood transfusion a practice in the St Thomas area of service, and a local care home. In Consultant obstetrician and Exeter. He enjoyed the continuity of his retirement he continued to do gynaecologist (b 1922; q St Mary’s general practice, seeing babies he had medical boards. He was passionate Hospital Medical School, London, delivered grow up and raise families. about medicine, his family, cars, and 1952; FRCOG), died from cancer of After retiring in 1987, he had many good food. He leaves his wife four the parotid gland on 5 October 2014. interests, including wood turning Consultant community paediatrician children, and 11 grandchildren. In 1965 Henry Alfred Milne (“Bob”) took and travel: but his enduring passions (b 1948; q Liverpool 1971; OBE), Derek Livingston, Gill Livingston, Brian up a consultant appointment at Epsom were classical music and poetry. He died from myeloma on 18 March Livingston, Ian Livingston District Hospital, where he worked for had a particular fondness for Keats, 2014. Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7467 the next 22 years. He was approached whose poetry was the subject of his After junior posts in Merseyside and by the medical officer for health, who presidential address to the Devon and Wrexham, Carys Mair Graham diligently Alan Douglas Lower was arranging a nine day clinic for Exeter Medical Society in 1980. He cared for children with special needs anyone to attend for a check-up, to run leaves his wife, Veronica; three sons; and their families in northeast Wales, in the breast and gynaecological clinic. and six grandchildren. clinics, and at their schools and homes, The response was overwhelming: 4000 Jennifer Clarke and she studied widely to accomplish women attended, and the clinic ran Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7355 this. She served on BMA committees from 2 pm until 11 pm continuously.