Lavinia Winifred Loughridge (20 May 1930 – 22 March 2014) was a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who specialised in

nephrology Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

. She was one of the pioneers of

kidney transplantation Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantat ...

, working with Sir

Roy Yorke Calne Sir Roy Yorke Calne (30 December 1930 – 6 January 2024) was a British surgeon and pioneer in organ transplantation. He was part of the team that performed the first liver transplantation operation in Europe in 1968, the world's first liver, ...

on Britain's first transplantation programme to use cadaveric kidneys.

Early life and education

Loughridge was born in 1930 in

Templepatrick Templepatrick (; ) is a village and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast, and halfway between the towns of Ballyclare and Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim. It is also close to Belfa ...

to John Carson Loughridge, a

general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

, and Winifred Elizabeth Loughridge, a pianist. She attended Victoria College in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

and received her medical degree from

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

in 1954.

Career

She began her career with house posts at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital before moving to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1955 to work at

Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, London, White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the ...

as a house physician. She returned to the Royal Belfast as a registrar in 1956 before moving back to Hammersmith in 1957. Loughridge was later appointed

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

, making her the first female consultant at the hospital. She became a lecturer at

Westminster Hospital Medical School The Westminster Hospital Medical School was one of the constituent medical schools of Imperial College School of Medicine. It was formally founded in 1834 by George Guthrie, an ex-military surgeon – although students had been taken on at Wes ...

in 1961; there, she and Malcolm Milne founded an academic department of

. She worked with Sir

in Britain's first

programme using cadaveric organs, and she co-authored an important article published in the ''

BMJ ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world' ...

'' in 1963 which showed that double

immunosuppressant Immunosuppressive drugs, also known as immunosuppressive agents, immunosuppressants and antirejection medications, are drugs that inhibit or prevent the activity of the immune system. Classification Immunosuppressive drugs can be classified ...

therapy—which later became the standard—reduced the risk of

transplant rejection Transplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipien ...

and improved the odds of survival after kidney transplants. She was also among the first physicians to begin using

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 ...

machines in patients with

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

. She was elected

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

in 1973 and served as the college's censor in 1988 and senior vice president in 1993–95.

Personal life

Loughridge was married twice: first to Sir Christopher Booth, with whom she had two children, and later to the American

anaesthetist Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, a ...

John Bunker. She retired in 1995 and died in 2014 after a long illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loughridge, Lavinia 1930 births 2014 deaths Nephrologists from Northern Ireland Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Academics of Imperial College London Medical doctors from County Antrim Women medical doctors from Northern Ireland Physicians of the Westminster Hospital People educated at Victoria College, Belfast 20th-century medical doctors from Northern Ireland 20th-century women medical doctors from Northern Ireland People from Templepatrick