Gillian Coysh Hanson FRCP

FRCA The Final FRCA is a postgraduate examination in anaesthesia, more fully called the Final Examination of the Diploma of Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Trainee anaesthetists in the United Kingdom are required to pass this exami ...

(25 March 1934 – 23 May 1996) was a British physician who specialised in

intensive care Intensive care medicine, also called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes pro ...

and the treatment of

diabetes mellitus Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. She established and led the

intensive care unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...

Whipps Cross Hospital Whipps Cross University Hospital is a large university hospital in the locality of Whipps Cross in Leytonstone and is within Epping Forest in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, London, England. It is managed by Barts Health NHS Trust. Histo ...

from 1968 to 1993.

Career

Gillian Coysh Hanson was born in 1934 to John Hanson, a metallurgist and chemist. She attended the

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...

School of Medicine in London (now part of

UCL Medical School UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical educatio ...

), graduating in 1957. She worked at Whipps Cross Hospital as a medical registrar and research fellow. Her early research focused on a

hyperbaric oxygen chamber A diving chamber is a vessel for human occupation, which may have an entrance that can be sealed to hold an internal pressure significantly higher than ambient pressure, a pressurised gas system to control the internal pressure, and a supply of ...

, which was then being used to treat

gas gangrene Gas gangrene (also known as clostridial myonecrosis and myonecrosis) is a bacterial infection that produces tissue gas in gangrene. This deadly form of gangrene usually is caused by ''Clostridium perfringens'' bacteria. About 1,000 cases of gas g ...

and

tetanus Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...

. Hanson led the establishment of an

(ICU) at Whipps Cross Hospital, and when it opened in 1968, she was appointed the physician in charge of the unit. This made her the first

consultant A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

physician placed in charge of a British ICU, and the youngest consultant in London at the time. The ICU at Whipps Cross became an international exemplar of intensive care, and Hanson co-authored the first textbook on intensive care therapy. In 1984, Hanson co-wrote a book entitled ''The Critically-Ill Obstetric Patient'' with Roger Walter Middleton (R.W.M) Baldwin; the book is featured in several medical libraries. Hanson later became interested in

parenteral nutrition Parenteral nutrition (PN) is the feeding of nutritional products to a person intravenously, bypassing the usual process of eating and digestion. The products are made by pharmaceutical compounding companies. The person receives a nutritional mix ...

obstetric Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgic ...

medicine and

, and in 1993 she left the intensive care unit to work on the treatment of diabetes in the community and at a specialised diabetic care centre at Whipps Cross Hospital.

Affiliations and memberships

Hanson was appointed as an examiner of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

, and was a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the

Royal College of Anaesthetists The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) is the professional body responsible for the specialty of anaesthesia throughout the United Kingdom. It sets standards in anaesthesia, critical care, pain management, and for the training of anaestheti ...

Personal life

Hanson married Roger Farrand, with whom she had three children. They resided in the

London Docklands London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, London Borough of ...

. Right after her retirement in 1996, she and her husband embarked on a trek to

Everest Base Camp There are two base camps on Mount Everest, on opposite sides of the mountains: South Base Camp is in Nepal at an altitude of (), while North Base Camp is in Tibet, China at (). The base camps are rudimentary campsites at the base of Mount Eve ...

in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

, after which she developed

pneumococcal ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'', or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, spherical bacteria, alpha-hemolytic (under aerobic conditions) or beta-hemolytic (under anaerobic conditions), aerotolerant anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. They are ...

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

, and her husband developed

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. Hanson died soon after from septicaemic shock; "she was a world expert on the management of this condition".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanson, Gillian 1934 births 1996 deaths British intensivists 20th-century English medical doctors Alumni of the UCL Medical School People from the London Borough of Waltham Forest Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Anaesthetists Deaths from sepsis English women medical doctors 20th-century British women medical doctors 20th-century English women 20th-century English people