Careers in Anesthesiology: Three Pioneer British Anaesthetists, Volume IX, 2005.

Kathryn E. McGoldrick, M.D., Editors, John S. M. Zorab, Guest Editor.

Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill by Anthony Edridge; Sir Robert Reynolds Macintosh

by Keith Sykes; Sir Geoffrey Organe by Stanley Feldman

CAREERS IX features three pioneer British knights who helped to shape 20th century anesthesiology in the U.K. The story of self-trained Sir Ivan Magill illustrates clinical expertise acquired out of surgical necessity.  His professionalism is expressed in a deft but unhurried manner, displaying a quiet confidence.  Sir Robert Macintosh’s story provides inspirational reading and touches upon his study of anesthetic mortality, which encountered enormous obstacles at the time but that can now be seen as a precursor to patient safety initiatives seen in the mid-1980s. Sir Geoffrey Organe was a key founding member of the WFSA, which he used to implement his lofty goals of establishing standards of anesthesia care and education in the developing world.  Interspersed in these stories are fascinating accounts of self-experimentation — often to the detriment of the researchers — as they passionately endeavored to establish anesthesiology during and after World War II.  This volume certainly adds to the rich tapestry of stories in the CAREERS series.

ISBN 1-889595-14-4