Pediatr Surg Int (2004) 19: 753–754 DOI 10.1007/s00383-003-1135-x

O BI T U AR Y

Lewis Spitz

Peter Paul Rickham

Published online: 13 January 2004 Ó Springer-Verlag 2004

Peter Rickham was one of a small group of pioneering surgeons who helped to establish the specialty of paediatric surgery in the United Kingdom. Having graduated in medicine at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, Peter trained in paediatric surgery under Sir Denis Browne at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and Miss Isobella Forshall at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool. After spending a year in Boston and Philadelphia as Harkness Travelling Fellow, he was appointed Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Alder Hey in 1952, becoming Director of Paediatric Surgical Studies in 1965. In 1971 he was appointed Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University Children’s Hospital in Zurich, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. At Alder Hey, Peter founded the first neonatal surgical unit in the world. This unit was to become the benchmark for similar units around the world and immediately improved the survival of newborn infants undergoing surgery from 22% to 74%. Peter was intensely involved with research, and his MS thesis concerned the metabolic response of the newborn infant to surgery. He was an innovative surgeon and devised the Rickham reservoir, an integral part of the Holter ventricular drainage system for the treatment of hydrocephalus. His textbook, Neonatal Surgery, published in 1969, was for many years the standard text used widely throughout the world. Peter Rickham was innovative, forceful, outspoken, and passionately involved with his specialty. In the early years following his appointment in Liverpool, he became so exasperated by the local paediatricians’ use of barium to diagnose oesophageal atresia that at Christmas of 1954, he sent every paediatrician in his catchment area a

L. Spitz Paediatric Surgery, Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street, London, WC1N3JH United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected]

card enclosing a radio-opaque catheter to use for safely diagnosing the condition. Among Peter’s notable achievements were the award of two Hunterian professorships by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Denis Browne Gold Medal for outstanding services to paediatric surgery by the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, and the Medal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was awarded

Born 21 June 1917, Berlin; died 17 November 2003 following a long illness after a stroke in 2001

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the Chevalier Legion d’Honneur in 1979 and the Commander’s Cross (Germany) in 1988. Peter was a founder member of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, serving as president in 1967/ 8. He was also a founder member of the Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus and the European Union of Paediatric Surgeons. He was co-founder and editor for Europe of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Peter was an honorary member of numerous national and international surgical and paediatric surgical societies and was visiting professor at almost every important paediatric surgery centre in the world. He published extensively, producing over 200 papers in scientific journals. Peter also had a distinguished war career, taking part in the Normandy invasion and serving in the Far East.

He reached the rank of major in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Peter had many interests outside medicine, including painting, classical music, skiing, and walking. Peter was not one to inspire neutral feelings in others – if he liked one, he would go to extraordinary lengths to help further one’s career. He took great pride in the achievements of his pupils, many of whom are currently leaders in the profession. In his words, ‘‘every time one of them succeeds, I think that my life was not entirely in vain.’’ I admired and respected Peter. He was my teacher and mentor, and he guided me throughout my career. He was predeceased by his first wife, Elizabeth, to whom he was married for 60 years. He married again, to Lyn, who nursed him through his final long illness. He leaves a son, two daughters, and five grandchildren.