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 ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large 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 ...

, 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 , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, 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 ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, 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 device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, experi ...

. 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 The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...

where he worked on surgical

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or 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 abnormal heme meta ...

, 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 spe ...

as a senior lecturer. Along with John Blandy, who he persuaded to take up transplant surgery, Ritchie used Kolff's twin coil for dialysis, 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 ambient pressure greater than sea level atmospheric pressure is a necessary component. The treatment comprises hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), the medical use of oxygen at an ambient pressure ...

, 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, w ...

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 a ...

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

Tenterden Tenterden is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother. It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation. Its riverside today is not ...

, 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 surgeons Alumni of the University of Glasgow