Dame Sheila Sherlock
BMJ 2002; 324 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.324.7330.174 (Published 19 January 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;324:174
All rapid responses
I am grateful to Amanda Sherlock James and others who have corrected
my errors. It was also fascinating and enjoyable to read their
reminiscences.
When such reminiscences are added to eObituaries, it adds detail and
colour to what is otherwise a very brief portrait. I hope the BMJ will
actively encourage this. It would be splendid if it became a custom on the
eObituary page.
Competing interests: No competing interests
To the Editor: British Medical Journal
In her overly abundant zeal your contributor Caroline Richmond has
done a profound disservice to the memory of Dame Sheila Sherlock
(obituary,BMJ: Jan 19,2002 ).As representatives of the large group of
N.American expatriates trained by Dame Sheila we wish to protest the
innuendoes, aspersions and opinionated gossip included in Richmond’s
assessment of the life and work of this outstanding clinician, scientist
and teacher.
Dame Sheila trained and mentored many hundreds of aspiring
hepatologists and not one of us would be where we are now if not for her
guidance and support. She gave this support unconditionally and although
this was not invariably reciprocated with loyalty from every quarter she
never in our experience bore a grudge or maligned any of her protégés. She
may not have forgotten Maurice Pappworth’s personal attack on her but we
doubt that she was unable to forgive. As for alleged one-way criticism,
Sheila loved the cut-and-thrust of medical and scientific debate, and
could take as much as she gave in this arena (witness some of the early
Medical Research Society question times). She taught us to think on our
feet and respond to tough questions with the best available evidence based
data.
In our individual experiences of up to 40 years as her trainee,
colleague and friend we never saw her ignore patient feelings, and as for
good taste, by what criteria or evidence does Caroline Richmond offer
herself as arbiter on the relationships that Sheila had with her patients?
They loved her authoritative consultations borne of lifelong experience;
her compassion was expressed openly to both patient and concerned family
and advice was proffered firmly but supportively. In addition, in contrast
to prevailing traditions Sheila was blind to class or wealth and treated
all her patients with equal dedication.
She would not have laid claim to the introduction of liver biopsy as
stated by Richmond. Rather Sheila developed and exploited its capabilities
to the ultimate in clinicopathological correlation and with Prof. Peter
Scheuer presiding she taught us just what a valuable tool it could be in
the management of patients with parenchymal liver disease.
Finally, in a lamentable lapse in factual reporting Caroline Richmond
fails to give the correct recognition to Mandy James, Sheila and Gerry’s
older daughter, and the Baptist minister, for presiding at Dame Sheila’s
funeral. As an early Editor of Gut, one of the BMA’s proud publications,
Sheila would in her inimitable style have sent Caroline Richmond away with
a missive to rewrite her copy and get the facts right, young lady! We
believe that you owe Dame Sheila Sherlock’s memory and her family an
apology.
Signed:
Anthony S.Tavill MD., FRCP, FACP
Jenny Heathcote MD., FRCP, FRCP(C)
Anna S.F. Lok MD., FRCP
Competing interests: No competing interests
I'd known Professor Sherlock since 1966, when she was visiting
Professor at the University of miami. At that time Doctor Geraint James
saw me by the first time because my sarcoidosis and during the three
following years we fellows elected Professor Sherlock as the visiting
professor of the year. Our acquaintance gave the pleasure to gift one of
her daughters a little Brazilian doll , a black doll, typical of our State
of Bahia. This fact had marked our friendship.
In 1978, I came to London for Professor Sherlock's update course of liver
diseases and we kept meeting regularly for the last six years.As others
have stated her kowledge of Internal Medicine was great and amazingly she
had time to be uptodate with soccer and some Brazilian soccer players who
have played in the United Kingdoom, as Juninho, one of her favourites. In
August of 2000 I met Prof. Sherlock after a mild stroke that affect her
left side and that was the last time we were together. As she is Professor
Honoris Causa of our University- Universidade de Iguaçu - we are sad for
her death, as thousands of oher patients and alumni.
Prof. Carlos A.Leite,MD,FACP
Head of Internal Medicine
University of Iguaçu-UNIG,
Rio de Janeiro- Brazil -22421
Competing interests: No competing interests
EDITOR. The B.M.J. obituary notice of Dame Sheila Sherlock rightly
highlights her position as an outstanding physician and clinical scientist
but fails to convey the enormous regard and affection in which she was
held by virtually all her junior staff and research fellows. She nurtured
them and gave them lifelong support and encouragement. Affection remains
tangible at the annual alumni dinner held during the American liver
meeting. It is true that she spoke her mind plainly, but criticism was
always constructive and aimed at achieving the highest standards in
clinical care and research. There was never a hint of rancour or malice.
If, as Dr Richmond suggests, papers had to be redrafted, they were
invariably improved as a result.
The duty of academic physicians remains first and foremost to their
current patients, but also to advance the effectiveness of the discipline
for the benefit of future patients. Sheila always adhered to this
principle. Her research led to enormous benefits for patients with liver
disease, including development of effective therapy for autoimmune
disease, early treatments for viral liver disease and improved management
of the complications of end stage liver disease and of biliary
obstruction. All of these areas would have developed more slowly without
her commitment to innovation and development. She gave patients her
opinion in a clear and direct manner, and it is a testament to her stature
that patients continued in her care for life, with a deep trust in her
both personally and clinically.
Sheila was gregarious and a generous host. She ensured that all her staff
were included in the Royal Free Medical Unit family. As in other families, once you were in, you were there for life. In this she was of course
greatly supported by her husband Gerry. Her devotion to family life as
wife and mother was another inspiraton. Her passing is mourned by very
many physicians and scientists who regard her tutelage as a career
highlight and an immense privilege. Commitment to the highest standards of
patient care and academic excellence is all that we saw in our mentor and,
in so far as we can emulate her example, it represents the epitaph which
Sheila would have desired.
Signed
Alistair D Beattie
Elwyn Elias
Marsha Morgan
Howard C Thomas
Competing interests: No competing interests
I write in response to the obituary of my mother, Dame
Sheila Sherlock. So far obituaries have appeared in
the Independent, Times and Guardian newspapers and it
has made me very proud indeed of my mother. However,
Caroline Richmond has failed to produce an accurate
one. May I take this opportunity of pointing out a
number of factual errors:
1. My mother did not write the first textbook on
hepatology and would be the first to give that credit
to the correct author.
2. My mother did not introduce needle biopsies but she
used the late Sir John McMichael's technique.
3. I conducted the funeral service and not my younger
sister, Auriole.
4. It is totally inaccurate to state that the family
are reticent about her cause of death. My mother died
very peacefully in her sleep on Sunday December 30 of
Fibrosis of the lungs. The writer of this obitaury was
told that.
To say that I am upset about this obituary is an
understatement. At a time when I am grieving the loss
of my mum, to read such an obituary, enrages me and
has done a number of my mother's colleagues. The fact
that my father has received over 200 letters of
sympathy from all over the world, possibly indicates
the love and affection people had for my mother.
I trust that you will make these inaccuracies known.
Amanda Sherlock James (Rev)
Competing interests: No competing interests
Caroline Richmond's important obituary on Dame Sheila Sherlock omits
the Third world dimension of this remarkable lady. After teaching a group
of us postgraduate doctors one afternoon at the Postgraduate Medical
School, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 some four decades ago, Dr Geraint
James approached me to ask what I had come to England to do. "To pass the
MRCP" I said, "and get equipped to go back to Ghana to find out why there
is more high blood pressure out there, with renal failure and strokes,
than I had ever been taught, or seen in this country in my undergraduate
days".
Dr Geraint James immediately told me that his wife was the Professor
of Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, and that in
addition to her liver expertise, she had one of the leading renal units in
the country. He would arrange an interview in no time.
When I met the charming lady in Grays Inn Road, I was struck not only
by the enormous amount of work that was going on in the Department of
Medicine, but also by the cramped space in which such excellent work was
going on. She put me under the wing of the indomitable Dr Stanley Shaldon
whose renal unit in Pond Street was the first to introduce home
haemodialysis in Europe. It was in Professor Sherlock's department I first
met Anthony Dawson (who became the Queen's Physician), Roger Williams,
Neil McIntyre, Geoffrey Walker, David Holbrook, Chris Comty, Rosemary
Baillod, Lewis Sevitt, M Ilahi, JR Heron, Rosemary Mulligan, consultant
neurologist PK Thomas, and others whose example of, and desire for, sheer
hard work was so infective that one felt one had to be productive.
I have mentioned before [1] that some of us from overseas owed our
clinical reseasrch proclivities to the likes of Dame Sheila Sherlock and
Professor Hermann Lehmann [2].
I was one of not a few from overseas that Dame Sheila took into her
department. Our heartfelt condolences from the Third World go to her
family, especially to Professor D Geraint James without whose kindness I
might never have met her.
1. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Problems of overseas doctors. BMJ 1981; 282:
1621-1622.
2. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Tribute to Professor Hermann Lehmann CBE, MD, PhD,
ScD, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSC, FRS. BMJ 1985; 291: 289.
Competing interests: No competing interests
not just hepatologists
Professor Sheila Sherlock was the most memorable teacher I ever met.
I was a mediocre student at the Royal Free, graduating in 1962, and
happened to do the somewhat dreaded 2 week locum which was expected to be
covered by a final year Medicine student, so that the Houseman could take
a holiday. It was absorbing and very hard work. Sheila kindly encouraged
one to speak up in presentations, and one generally felt mothered. This
was particularly so when I had to go to tell her that I had failed my
"conjoint" Medicine exam because I was so tired! I came away from working
on "the Unit" feeling very comfortable with some extraordinarily rare
diagnoses. But Sheila's teaching skills were what impressed me most. I
remember her moving on from a "liver" patient's bed, saying "Let's talk
about this next gentleman" - he happened to have a cardiac condition. To
watch Sheila work through this case from first principles and arrive at
the differential diagnosis was education indeed. Another patient had
chronic gall bladder disease, and I remember Sheila saying "This surgery
will be difficult - I will speak to Mr Rodney Maingot." Thus the man was
ensured safe and quick surgery. VAnd by the way, I ended up working in
Child development, but Sheila's methods stayed with me always. Carolyn
McGhee
Competing interests: No competing interests