Russell Brock, Baron Brock
Encyclopedia
Russell Claude Brock, Baron Brock of Wimbledon (24 October 1903   –   3 September 1980) was a leading British chest and heart surgeon and one of the pioneers of modern open-heart surgery. His achievements were recognised by a Knighthood in 1954 a Life Peerage in 1965 and a host of other awards.

Styles

  • Mr Russell Brock (1903-1925)
  • Dr Russell Brock (1925-1926)
  • Mr Russell Brock MRCS
    Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons
    MRCS is a professional qualification for surgeons in the UK and IrelandIt means Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the United Kingdom, doctors who gain this qualification traditionally no longer use the title 'Dr' but start to use the title 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' or 'Ms'.There are 4 surgical...

     LRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1926-1928)
  • Prof. Russell Brock MRCS
    Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons
    MRCS is a professional qualification for surgeons in the UK and IrelandIt means Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the United Kingdom, doctors who gain this qualification traditionally no longer use the title 'Dr' but start to use the title 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' or 'Ms'.There are 4 surgical...

     LRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1928-1929)
  • Prof. Russell Brock MB BS FRCS
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

     LRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1929-1931)
  • Prof. Russell Brock MB BS MS
    Master of Science
    A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

     FRCS
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

     LRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1931-1954)
  • Prof. Sir Russell Brock MB BS FRCS
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

     LRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1954-1965)
  • Prof. Sir Russell Brock MB BS FRCS
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

     FRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1965-1965)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Lord Brock of Wimbledon MB BS FRCS
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
    Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

     FRCP
    Royal College of Physicians
    The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

     (1965-1980)

Biography

He was born in London, 1903, the son of Herbert Brock, a master photographer, and his wife, Elvina (née Carman). He was the second of six sons and fourth of eight children. He was educated at Haselrigge Road School, Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...

, and then at Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...

, Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

, where he later became an Almoner (governor). He entered Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...

 Medical School in 1921 at age 17 with an arts scholarship. He qualified LRCP
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

 (Lond.) and MRCS
Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons
MRCS is a professional qualification for surgeons in the UK and IrelandIt means Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the United Kingdom, doctors who gain this qualification traditionally no longer use the title 'Dr' but start to use the title 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' or 'Ms'.There are 4 surgical...

 (Eng.) 1926, and graduated MB, BS (Lond.) with honours and distinction in medicine, surgery, and anatomy in 1927. He was appointed demonstrator in anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 and in pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 at Guy's and passed the final FRCS
Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

 (Eng.) in 1929.

Brock was elected to a Rockefeller travelling fellowship and worked in the surgical department of Evarts Graham
Evarts Ambrose Graham
Evarts Ambrose Graham was a professor and a physician.Born in Chicago, Illinois to a surgeon, Graham received his M.D. degree from Rush Medical College, in 1907. An expert thoracic surgeon, he was best known for collaborating with J. J. Singer on the successful removal of a lung to fight cancer....

 at St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, 1929-30. There he developed a life-long interest in thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in the surgical treatment of diseases affecting organs inside the thorax . Generally treatment of conditions of the lungs, chest wall, and diaphragm....

. He returned to Guy's as surgical registrar
Specialist registrar
A Specialist Registrar or SpR is a doctor in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland who is receiving advanced training in a specialist field of medicine in order eventually to become a consultant...

 and tutor in 1932 and was appointed research fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He won the Jacksonian prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1935 and was elected a Hunterian professor in 1938. Appointments included consultant thoracic surgeon to the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

, 1935-46; surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions
Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance
The Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance or MPNI was a British government ministry responsible for the administration and delivery of welfare benefits...

 at Roehampton Hospital, 1936-45; surgeon to Guy's
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...

 and the Brompton hospitals 1936-1968. During World War Two
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he was also thoracic surgeon
Thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in the surgical treatment of diseases affecting organs inside the thorax . Generally treatment of conditions of the lungs, chest wall, and diaphragm....

 and regional adviser in thoracic surgery to the Emergency Medical Service in the Guy's region. Based on this experience, in 1946 he published a book on bronchial anatomy which became a classic.

The end of the war provided opportunities for surgeons with war experience to turn their attention to unsolved civilian problems. In 1947 Thomas Holmes Sellors (1902-1987) of the Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital
The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...

 operated on a Fallot’s Tetralogy patient with pulmonary stenosis and successfully divided the stenosed pulmonary valve
Pulmonary valve
The pulmonary valve is the semilunar valve of the heart that lies between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery and has three cusps. Similar to the aortic valve, the pulmonary valve opens in ventricular systole, when the pressure in the right ventricle rises above the pressure in the...

. In 1948, Brock, probably unaware of Sellor’s work, used a specially designed dilator in three cases of pulmonary stenosis. Later in 1948 he designed a punch to resect the infundibular muscle stenosis
Stenosis
A stenosis is an abnormal narrowing in a blood vessel or other tubular organ or structure.It is also sometimes called a stricture ....

 which is often associated with Fallot’s Tetralogy.

Also in 1948 he was the only non-American of four surgeons who carried out successful operations for mitral stenosis
Mitral stenosis
Mitral stenosis is a valvular heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the orifice of the mitral valve of the heart.-Signs and symptoms:Symptoms of mitral stenosis include:...

 resulting from rheumatic fever. Horace Smithy (1914-1948) of Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
- CHARLOTTE :CHARLOTTE is an American blues-based hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1986. Currently, they are signed to indie label, Eonian Records, under which they released their debut cd, Medusa Groove, in 2010. Notable Charlotte songs include 'Siren', 'Little Devils',...

, revived an operation due to Dr Elliott Cutler
Elliott Cutler
Brigadier General Elliot Carr Cutler CB, OBE, FRCS, MD, FACS was an American surgeon and medical educator. He was Moseley Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Surgeon-in-Chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1932 to 1947., and a Brigadier General in the U.S...

 of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital is the largest hospital of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts. It is directly adjacent to Harvard Medical School of which it is the second largest teaching affiliate with 793 beds...

 using a punch to remove a portion of the mitral valve
Mitral valve
The mitral valve is a dual-flap valve in the heart that lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle...

. Charles Bailey
Charles P. Bailey
Charles Philamore Bailey was an American cardiac surgeon.. His methods were the focus of a 1957 Time magazine article. He was a graduate of Rutgers University, Hahnemann Medical College and the University of Pennsylvania....

 (1910-1993) at the Hahnemann Hospital
Hahnemann University Hospital
Hahnemann University Hospital, established in 1885 and named after Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, is a hospital in Center City, Philadelphia. It is affiliated with Drexel University College of Medicine and serves as its Center City Hahnemann campus.-History:In 1993 Hahnemann...

, Philadelphia, Dwight Harken
Dwight Harken
Dwight Emary Harken was an American surgeon. He was an innovator in heart surgery and introduced the concept of the intensive care unit.-Life:Dwight Harken was born in Osceola, Iowa. He received his Bachelor's and Medical degrees from Harvard...

 in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 and Russell Brock at Guy’s all adopted the finger fracture technique first used by Henry Souttar
Henry Souttar
Sir Henry Sessions Souttar, , was a surgeon with a wide breadth of interests. He trained first as a mathematician and engineer. His engineer’s training enabled him to design and make new types of surgical instrument. His mathematical training made him a leader in setting out the first British...

 in 1925. All these men started work independently of each other, within a few months. This latter technique was widely adopted although there were modifications. Souttar had pioneered the method in one patient and the patient did well but his physician colleagues at that time decided it was not justified and he could not continue. Together these men created an entirely new therapeutic tradition. Many thousands of these “blind” operations were performed until the introduction of heart bypass made direct surgery on valves possible.

Inspired by exchange professorships between himself and Dr Alfred Blalock
Alfred Blalock
Alfred Blalock was a 20th-century American surgeon most noted for his research on the medical condition of shock and the development of the Blalock-Taussig Shunt, surgical relief of the cyanosis from Tetralogy of Fallot—known commonly as the blue baby syndrome—with Vivien Thomas and pediatric...

 of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Brock also introduced new developments, notably hypothermia and the heart-lung machine
Heart-lung machine
Cardiopulmonary bypass is a technique that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery, maintaining the circulation of blood and the oxygen content of the body. The CPB pump itself is often referred to as a heart–lung machine or "the pump"...

, as they emerged, enabling operations to be performed directly.

He was an outstanding diagnostician, a conscientious teacher and meticulous in the care of his patients. He was not an easy man to know well. He was strict in handling his juniors but meticulously fair and very support of those who gained his confidence. Likewise he could not tolerate slackness in those who worked with him and suffered fools badly. He was very much an individualist, found his own solutions to problems and was not always good at accepting the solutions of others. On the other hand, John Kirklin
John W. Kirklin
John Webster Kirklin was born in Muncie, Indiana, United States. After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1942 he made several important contributions to heart surgery while practicing at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota...

 said that when he (Kirklin) had just performed his first operation at the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...

 using the Mayo-Gibbon oxygenator, and was about to do his second, Brock phoned, asking to come and watch. Knowing that Brock was supposed to be a difficult man with a big reputation, Weisse offered him the chance to scrub up and stand in the theatre but he said, “No, no, no. I don’t want to bother you”. He sat and watched inconspicuously in the gallery.. Perhaps this tells us that Brock felt that he had a mission to serve patients, did not like having precious time wasted but came humbly to learn when he sensed a master at work.

He was awarded the 1966 Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science. The corresponding Lister Oration, given at the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...

, was delivered on 4 April 1967, and was titled 'Surgery and Lister'.

Brock died in Guy's Hospital on 3 September 1980.

Services, Awards and Honours

Assistant editor and later editor of Guy's Hospital Reports 1939-1960.

Contributed important papers on cardiac and thoracic surgery to medical and surgical journals and textbooks.

Served on the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...

, 1949-1967, and as vice-president 1956-8 and President 1963-6, and director of department of surgical sciences established during his Presidency.

Delivered the Bradshaw Lecture
Bradshaw Lecture
The Bradshaw Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England....

 at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1957 and their Hunterian oration in 1961.

Knighted 1954

Life peerage 1965

President Thoracic Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1952; Society of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1958 ; Medical School of London in 1968.

Elected fellow: Thoracic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; Royal College of Physicians of London
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

 in 1965

Elected Honorary fellow: American College of Surgeons
American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.-Membership:...

, 1949; the Brazilian College, 1952; the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is the body responsible for training and examining surgeons in Australia and New Zealand. The head office of the College is in Melbourne, Australia....

, 1958; the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , is a Dublin-based medical institution, situated on St. Stephen's Green. The college is one of the five Recognised Colleges of the National University of Ireland...

, 1965; the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada ' , French: Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada, is a national, private, nonprofit organization established in 1929 by a special Act of Parliament to oversee the medical education of specialists in Canada...

; and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...

, 1966.

Awards: Julius Mickle prize of London University (1952), Fothergillian Gold Medal of the Medical Society of London
Medical Society of London
The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies in the United Kingdom ....

 (1953) Cameron prize of University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

, Gold Medal of Society of Apothecaries (1955), Gold Medal of West London Medical and Chirurgical Society (1955), International Gairdner award, 1960-1, Lister medallist and orator, 1967.

Honorary degrees from universities: Hamburg (1962), Leeds (1965), Cambridge (1968), Guelph and Munich (1972).

Other Interests

Outside his professional work he had considerable knowledge of old furniture and prints, and history, especially local and medical history. Less well known was his dedication to the complementary interests of private medicine and the NHS, for he served on the governing body of Private Patients Plan and was chairman (1967-77) before becoming its president. He was responsible for the discovery and restoration, on the Guy’s site, of an eighteenth-century operating theatre which was formerly part of the old St. Thomas's Hospital

In 1927, he married Germaine Louise Ladavèze (died 1978). They had three daughters. In 1979, he married Chrissie Palmer Jones.

Publications

  • The Anatomy of the Bronchial Tree, with special reference to the surgery of lung abscess
    Lung abscess
    Lung abscess is necrosis of the pulmonary tissue and formation of cavities containing necrotic debris or fluid caused by microbial infection....

     (Oxford University Press
    Oxford University Press
    Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

    : London, 1946, Second edition 1954);

  • The Life and Work of Astley Cooper
    Astley Cooper
    Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...

     (E. & S. Livingstone: Edinburgh & London, 1952);

  • Lung Abscess (Blackwell Scientific Publications
    Blackwell Publishing
    Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley's Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing, after Wiley took over Blackwell Publishing in...

    : Oxford, 1952);

  • The Anatomy of Congenital Pulmonary Stenosis
    Pulmonary valve stenosis
    Pulmonary valve stenosis is a heart valve disorder in which outflow of blood from the right ventricle of the heart is obstructed at the level of the pulmonic valve. This results in the reduction of flow of blood to the lungs. Valvular pulmonic stenosis accounts for 80% of right ventricular outflow...

     (Cassell & Co.
    Orion Publishing Group
    Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...

    : London, 1957);

  • John Keats
    John Keats
    John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...

     and Joseph Severn
    Joseph Severn
    Joseph Severn was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats...

    , the tragedy of the last illness, 1973.
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