Aires Barros D'Sa was a renowned pioneer of vascular surgery and trauma, who in 2000 was awarded the OBE for services to vascular surgery in Northern Ireland. He died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 67 on 29 January 2007 in cardiac surgical intensive care unit in the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he had spent most of his career playing a pivotal role in the establishment of vascular services regionally, nationally, and internationally. He was held in the highest regard as an outstanding vascular surgeon of his generation, one who extended the parameters of his chosen specialty. He founded one of the first vascular laboratories in the United Kingdom, which in 2005 was named, in recognition of his achievements, the Barros D'Sa Vascular Laboratory.

Born to a Goan family in 1939 in Nairobi, Aires Barros D'Sa grew up in Kenya. Educated at the Duke of Gloucester School, he gained a scholarship to medical school in Bombay. However, the Indian blockade of Goa, which heralded the end of Portuguese rule there, altered his course, and in 1959 he took up a scholarship to Queen's University, Belfast. One of a handful of overseas students in Belfast in the 1960s, Aires emerged as a social and academic leader. His future in Northern Ireland was ensured when he met and married …