Medical Lives: Memories and Musings

When COVID-19 struck the UK in March 2020 and ‘lockdown’ followed, the members of the Senior Fellows Club at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh looked on in horror as this new ‘black death’ took its toll and many people in our age group were denied access to intensive care or proper protection in care homes. Most of us were, by definition, vulnerable and went into isolation. We learned new ways of living: booking online to have shopping, newspapers and drugs delivered or, more likely, got our computer-savvy grandchildren to do this.

Our last club meeting proved to be the annual Guest Lunch and Arts, Crafts & Collectors Exhibition on 2 March. Little did we expect that we would not meet in the flesh again for nearly another two years. But we became adept at ‘zooming’ and, later that year, our monthly talks resumed via Webex, thanks to the College’s IT department and Peter Falconer in particular. However, just before then, Professor Anthony Seaton, always full of good ideas – as evident in his contributions to this book – suggested we might increase our COVID-restricted interactions by writing ‘essays’ and circulating them around. A trickle ensued, which he, then both of us, began editing. Further invites to write were sent out in early 2021 and the number of ‘essays’ multiplied, some authors enthusiastically writing several. It struck me that if enough articles were forthcoming, they might make an anthology, an interesting themed compilation of reminiscences and a legacy of our COVID-induced estrangement.

Members were asked to consider any topic. There were obvious medical themes: why I became a doctor; what attracted me to my specialty; my most remarkable or difficult patient; a diagnostic dilemma; a medical near-miss disaster; my medical hero or role model – and so on.  Or the subject could be non-medical. It was emphasised that readers would want to get to know something of the author, his or her thoughts and reflections, hopes and disappointments, contributions, failures and fallibilities. Prose or poetry, story, reminiscence, bee-in-the-bonnet or polemic - all were welcomed. This compilation in ten themed chapters substantially fulfils these objectives and readers should find much of interest. 

Contributions range from memories of young doctor and student days, of sitting the dreaded ‘Membership’ exam, of adventures abroad, and of unusual cases encountered over the years, to research, careers and hobbies. A number of items would have fitted into more than one theme and others have been assigned to ‘A Miscellaneous Medley’. The book ends with reflections on medicine and medical life, some serious, some not so serious. Every submission has been included except two that were more suited to publication elsewhere and two for which permission to publish was not given. In its compilation of the thoughts and memories of a cohort of retired doctors, this anthology is unusual

There is much information, such as that 35% of medical outpatients lack a clear diagnosis for their symptoms; that the UK hospital autopsy rate has fallen from around 40-50% in the 1960s to about 1% now; and that when Professor Ian Donald, who pioneered the use of ultrasound in obstetrics, first proposed the idea to an obstetric audience his talk was greeted with such profound scepticism that, he said: “I knew I was onto something”! There is humour and intriguing snippets, like how the Profumo affair affected hospital staff; the graphic pen-picture of one author’s role model, a distinguished London gynaecologist who drove a small sports car, ‘a long cigarette holder clamped between her teeth and a smile which rarely extended to her eyes’; and the scarcely believable fact that the post Great War Peace Treaty of Versailles included international agreement on the acoustic definition of tuning note A! We learn from doctors’ hobbies that the bird song of the willow warbler ‘is almost operatic, like a downward-flowing aria’, while its contact call ‘is simpler, a sweet, upwardly inflected, single note’; that serious book-collectors don’t buy books to read; and that magnolias are ancient plants from the dinosaur era that evolved before bees and were probably then pollinated by beetles. We could, however, have done without hearing about an unholy form of treatment for haemorrhoids! The whole is interlaced with delightful poems and illustrated. It is hoped readers will be entertained.

It is good to be publishing this anthology during the 30^th anniversary year of the club’s inauguration in 1992. Since then, membership has more than doubled from 81 to 194 and is likely to grow further as it has been decided this year to offer free membership to all retired fellows of the College, worldwide. Thirty years on, the club has developed into a very active society and details of its activities can be found on its extensive website by Googling ‘Senior Fellows Club’. Members also have a private password to access audio-visual recordings of the club’s talks, to the ‘essays’, to an online forum and to the club’s directory of members. We are particularly proud of prizes we give to young doctors in training for their research publications in the College Journal. This keeps us both educated and in touch with the kind of young doctors we once were. It is hoped they will enjoy the book.

When in 1992 the formation of a senior fellows’ club was first mooted, there was an overwhelming positive response from retired local fellows, though one former College President wrote that he could think of nothing worse than getting together with a lot of old duffers! Old, or older, we may be – duffers, never.

Stefan Slater
July, 2022

Medical Lives: Memories and Musings ,

Reflections and reminiscences by members of the Senior Fellows Club of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Compiled by Dr Stefan Slater

97 themed articles and 11 interlaced poems from 45 authors

CONTENTS

Foreword		1
Acknowledgements		3
Introduction		4

 

Chapter 1 As Young Hospital Doctors and Students

Frying tonight	Roger Wild	9
But Sister, I did exactly as you said…	John Hunter	11
Inspiration	Petros Perros	12
Another time, another world	Malcolm Merrick	18
The class of 2021	Kirsty Muirhead	22
A crime scene?	Brian Pentland	25
The Kingdom of Fife	Allan Stevenson	26
A very small rebellion	Alastair Blair	31
The things we did	Anthony Seaton	33
A junior doctor in London in the 1960s	Roger Kellett	36
It might turn out differently now	Alastair Blair	39
Interviews	Anthony Seaton	40
It was acceptable in the eighties	Allan Stevenson	42

 

Chapter 2 The Dreaded Membership Exam

A day out in London...	Niall Finlayson	48
The ‘Membership’ – Recollections	Robert Finnie	51
Tales from the Edinburgh Membership...	David Boyd	54
Making good in the bad old days	Anthony Seaton	57
Passing and failing the 'Membership'	Stefan Slater	61
Examinations	Philip Welsby	63

 

Chapter 3 Adventures Abroad

Four concerts	David Macfadyen	70
Home thoughts from abroad	Iain Macintyre	76
A medical wife in Kenya	Judith Steel	83
A physician’s experience of obstetrics	David Boyd	86
Aden - 1962-3	James Gray	89
The Nairobi-Mombasa Railway, 1982	Brian Frier	97
Karma	David Macfadyen	100
All at sea	Roger Smith	103
My moments with the countess	David Boyd	106
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi	Judith &	108
	Michael Steel

 

Chapter 4 Unusual Clinical Encounters & Unforgettable Patients

A family I will not forget	Ron Fergusson	118
Two memorable domiciliary visits	Stefan Slater	121
The story of Beatrix	Mhairi MacDonald	123
Ramifications of a common condition	Margaret Cook	125
A long follow-up	David Boyd	128
Surprises on home visits	Roger Smith	130
A paucity of signs	Allan Stevenson	132
Double-barrelled eponyms	Margaret Cook	136
Anecdotes from geriatric medicine	John Wilson	138
My most maddening patient...	Stefan Slater	141

 

Chapter 5 Enquiring Minds

From clinic to research...	Anthony Seaton	145
Exploring schizophrenia...	Eve Johnstone	149
False impressions	Brian Pentland	156
The Paradoxical Puff	Stefan Slater	159
A year of research in Kenya	Michael Steel	166
The paracetamol story	Laurie Prescott	169
An idea through the letterbox	Anthony Seaton	176
What happened next	Eve Johnstone &	178
	David Owens

 

Chapter 6 Careers

Tales from a Chest Physician	James Friend	191
Role models: there’s nothing like a dame	Jean Keeling	194
Making my way...	Helen Zealley	201
From Jamaica to Edinburgh	Sadie Walsh	208
Some doors close but others open	Gordon Paterson	212

 

Chapter 7 General Practice

Is it urgent?	Robert Finnie	219
To prescribe or not?...	Robert Finnie	220
An interlude in general practice	Stefan Slater	223
Four generations talking to patients…	Patricia Donald	227
Has primary care lost its soul?	Douglas Stuart	231
It’s a GP’s life	Ken Lawton	233

 

Chapter 8 Doctors’ Hobbies

‘March dust’	Allan Stevenson	241
The Suzhou paintings...	David Macfadyen	244
Collecting Delftware Tiles...	James Gray	251
Pianos	Allan Stevenson	260
‘The Moving Finger writes’	Stefan Slater	265
Time to stand and stare	Margaret Cook	270
Clematis montana var Wilsonii	Allan Stevenson	272

 

Chapter 9 A Miscellaneous Medley

Ian Donald: a personal memoir	David Purdie	277
Listen to the ticking	Nick Bateman	282
Cimicosis	Margaret Cook	287
‘On a Sunny Afternoon’...	John Gaddie	288
College experiences...	David Macfadyen	289
Professor Stanley Alstead...	Bill Maclennan	294
British Red Cross Surgical Training...	Gordon Paterson	297
The Defence Medical Welfare Service	Gordon Paterson	299
Bring back flies	Anthony Seaton	301
Looking for an eponym	David Macfadyen	303
Get rid of the birds	David Boyd	308
The non-medical dining clubs of Edinburgh	Andrew Calder	311
Two plus two equals four. Well maybe	Philip Welsby	316
A tale of resuscitation	John Irving	318
Not a Mister, just a Doctor	Stefan Slater	319
The tuning fork and the treaty	David Macfadyen	321

 

Chapter 10 Reflections Serious and Not So Serious

Autopsies and the kindness of relatives	Niall Finlayson	331
What do you talk about at parties?	Nick Bateman	334
Many reasons why I became a doctor	David Boyd	336
Two brushes with the law courts	Philip Myerscough	339
Two early lessons	Anthony Seaton	340
Reflections on care: pre-NHS and now	James Friend	342
Do we care anymore?...	Stefan Slater	346
A new specialty?	Philip Welsby	355
“Go home and sit still”	Jacqui Mok	357
First do no harm	Anthony Seaton	359
January 6th, 2021: A Glimpse of Hell	Anthony Seaton	363
Random thoughts on lockdown walks	Philip Welsby	365
Long lost family	Douglas Stuart	367
Doctors in politics	David Boyd	370
Why did you choose Medicine?	Anthony Seaton	376
The keeping of diaries	Allan Stevenson	378
Appendix of the authors		382
Appendix of Senior Fellows Club office bearers 1992-2022		388

 

Book make-up: (x) + 388 pages, 234 X 156mm, 90gsm G-print matt coated paper, hardback, with hidden tailbands, top and bottom, and 29 illustrations

Publisher: Privately published jointly by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and its Senior Fellows Club. Printed and bound by Bell & Bain, Glasgow

ISBN – 978-1-3999-3250-9