Horace David Ritchie (24 September 1920 - 21 December 1993) was a Scottish surgeon and professor of surgery.

Early life

David Ritchie was born on 24 September 1920 in

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

, Scotland, one of four children of a grocer in the town. He had planned to become a Presbyterian minister, and earned a master's degree in Latin, Greek, and theology from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, but then studied medicine at

Magdalene College Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, University of Cambridge, and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, where he qualified in 1947.

Career

In 1951, Ritchie passed the FRCS (Edinburgh), won the Crichton Research Scholarship and subsequently attempted to construct an

artificial heart An artificial heart is a artificial organ, device that replaces the human heart, heart. Artificial hearts are typically used as a bridge to heart transplantation, but ongoing research aims to develop a device that could permanently replace the ...

. In 1953, he received an MRC scholarship in Liverpool where he ultimately did perform a pig heart transplant. The pig survived for 30 days. In 1955, after lecturing in Dundee, he travelled to the

Mayo clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...

where he worked on surgical

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or, less frequently, greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving ...

, for which he later won a gold medal. In 1958 he joined the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and sp ...

as a senior lecturer. Along with John Blandy, who he persuaded to take up transplant surgery, Ritchie used Kolff's twin coil for

dialysis Dialysis may refer to: * Dialysis (chemistry), a process of separating molecules in solution **Electrodialysis, used to transport salt ions from one solution to another through an ion-exchange membrane under the influence of an applied electric po ...

, a procedure he was appointed to set up three years earlier. He was made reader in surgery in 1960 and on the retirement of Victor Dix in 1964 was appointed professor. Ritchie pioneered the use of

hyperbaric oxygen Hyperbaric medicine is medical treatment in which an increase in barometric pressure of typically air or oxygen is used. The immediate effects include reducing the size of gas emboli and raising the partial pressures of the gases present. Initial ...

, which he used to save the frostbitten fingers of the climbers

Chris Bonington Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL (born 6 August 1934) is a British mountaineer. His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest. Early life and expeditions Bonington's father, ...

and

Dougal Haston Duncan "''Dougal"'' Curdy MacSporran Haston (19 April 1940 – 17 January 1977) was a Scottish mountaineer noted for his exploits in the British Isles, Alps, and the Himalayas. From 1967 he was the director of the International School of Mountai ...

, despite them managing to climb out of the tank and repair to a nearby pub. In 1968, Ritchie supervised Richard Earlam who had moved to the London Hospital as a lecturer. He was co-editor of '' Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery'' for the editions of 1975 and 1981.

Personal life

In 1953, he married Jennifer Prentice, and they had three sons, Gordon, Andrew and

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

. That marriage ended in divorce in 1983, and in 1990, he married Elizabeth "Peggy" Thompson. He died in

Tenterden Tenterden is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The 2021 census published the population of the parish to be 8,186. Geography Tenterden is connected to Kent's county town of Maidstone by the A262 road an ...

, Kent, on 21 December 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Horace David 1920 births 1993 deaths People from Falkirk Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Medical School Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish surgeons Alumni of the University of Glasgow 20th-century Scottish medical doctors