Irene Marion Desmet (née Irving; 25 March 1928 – 5 March 2020) was an English paediatric surgeon. She lived and worked in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

for her whole life, and was a consultant surgeon at

Alder Hey Children's Hospital Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a children's hospital and NHS foundation trust in West Derby, Liverpool, England. It is one of the largest children's hospitals in the United Kingdom, and one of several specialist hospitals within the Live ...

Early life

Irene Irving was born in

in 1928 to George Stanley Irving, a chemical engineer, and Mary Ellen Irving (née Stockley). She attended

Broughton Hall High School Broughton Hall High School is an all-girls', Roman Catholic secondary school and sixth form located in the West Derby area of Liverpool, L12 9HJ England. History Broughton Hall was built in 1860 for Gustavus C. Schaube of Hamburg, a promi ...

and then studied medicine at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. At university, she was inspired by her friends who had previously served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

to learn to fly, and gained her pilot's licence in 1948. She graduated from Liverpool with an

MB ChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

in 1952.

Career

Irving held house posts at the

Liverpool Royal Infirmary The Liverpool Royal Infirmary was a hospital in Pembroke Place in Liverpool, England. The building is now used by the University of Liverpool. History The infirmary has its origins in a small building on Shaw's Brow which was opened by the 11th ...

, before becoming a senior house officer at

, where she worked with Peter Paul Rickham and Isabella Forshall, two of the founders of

paediatric surgery Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. History Pediatric surgery arose in the middle of the 1879 century as the surgical care of birth defects requ ...

. After completing her general surgical training at the

David Lewis Northern Hospital The David Lewis Northern Hospital was located in Great Howard Street, Liverpool. It was first established in 1834 and closed in 1978. History The hospital had its origins in a facility which was established in Leeds Street to deal with victims of ...

in 1957, becoming a Fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The ...

, she was inspired by Forshall to pursue further training as a paediatric surgeon. In 1960 she married Louis Desmet, a former Belgian oyster farmer who later ran a hotel in Liverpool, and they had three children shortly afterwards. While her children were young, she worked as a clinical assistant at Alder Hey and Birkenhead Children's Hospital and completed a

ChM CHM may refer to: Biology and medicine * CHM, abbreviation for Clearing House Mechanism under the Convention on Biological Diversity * CHM, a human gene that encodes Rab escort protein 1 * Choroideremia, a retinal disease caused by mutations in the ...

in 1969. After Louis died of cancer in 1973, Irene raised their three children (then aged 12, 10 and 9) while working full-time. She became a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey and a lecturer with the University of Liverpool in 1974. In 1978, she co-authored the textbook ''Rickham's Neonatal Surgery''. Desmet's approach was admired by patients, nurses and junior doctors; she was described by one of her registrars as "an iron fist in a velvet glove". She described her own career as such: "I feel that my real claim to fame is that of having managed to combine the careers of motherhood and surgery."

Later life

Desmet retired in 1986 after being diagnosed with two separate cancers. She died on 5 March 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desmet, Irene 1928 births 2020 deaths British paediatric surgeons English surgeons Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Medical doctors from Liverpool Alumni of the University of Liverpool Academics of the University of Liverpool