Arnold Gourevitch
BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7459.235-b (Published 22 July 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:235Data supplement
Arnold Gourevitch
Former consultant surgeon Birmingham (b Paris 24 February 1914; q London 1936), died from pneumonia on 5 February 2004.
Arnold belonged to that diminishing generation of doctors whose professional lives spanned the second world war and the inception of the NHS.
He was born in Paris to Russian Jewish émigrés. His family ultimately settled in Birmingham, where his father, Mendel, became a respected general practitioner in Aston. Arnold attended the King Edward VI School and Birmingham University Medical School, qualifying in 1936 with the conjoint qualification MRCS LRCP. It was his ambition to follow a surgical career and he achieved the FRCS in 1939, prior to the outbreak of war. During this time, he would on occasion help his father in practice, and he often described these times as being more difficult and frightening than the practice of surgery.
As with many colleagues he joined the Territorial Army Medical Corps prior to the outbreak of war. He served with the Territorial Army Field Ambulance, part of 145 Brigade, 48th South Midland Division, and accompanied them to France with the British Expeditionary Force. After being evacuated from La Baule, Brittany, he was posted to Leeds as resident medical officer of the 10th West Yorkshire Regiment, before joining the surgical division of No 7 General Hospital.
In 1941 he disembarked at Suda Bay in Crete. Most of the British, Commonwealth, and Greek garrison had just escaped from Greece at the end of the Balkan campaign, but a German assault on the island was believed to be inevitable, and as a senior medical officer he contributed to establishing a hospital near Galatas, west of Canea.
After the German airborne invasion and the order to evacuate the island, many of the remaining troops and the wounded who were unable to leave were captured and interned. "Skip" Dorney, an Australian doctor, and Arnold decided they should escape. They climbed the wire and made for a dentist’s house situated in the centre of Canea. The pair were well cared for by the Cretans, who put themselves at considerable risk, particularly as the German administration was inflicting uncompromising punishment on any opposition. Dorney and Gourevitch’s evacuation from the island was organised by Special Operations Executive, and they were taken to Bardia in Libya by the legendary Commander Comberlege.
Arnold was awarded the Military Cross. Subsequently he was attached to units following the invasion of Sicily and ended the war at Trieste, Italy. As with many others, he had no desire to be part of a peacetime army and was demobilised in 1946.
Arnold was appointed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, with additional beds at the Corbett Hospital, Stourbridge, and Dudley Guest Hospital, Dudley, at a time when the senior surgeon on the firm had first call on the beds in the teaching hospital. He later resigned from these two hospitals after his appointment to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
He could be an adventurous and brave surgeon, particularly when operating on children, and he was dedicated to the cause of surgery, though he felt this had waned in later years. He was committed to teaching his students and could inspire and occasionally intimidate, and this could be compounded by a degree of unpredictability in his manner. He had a creative temperament. After acquiring a cannula from Denmark originally designed for another purpose, he adapted this to intubate the cystic duct during cholecystectomy. This instrument became standard use in the West Midlands. He also designed a stent for intubating oesophageal tumours; although this was not widely used in the United Kingdom it was used in some Eastern bloc countries.
Throughout most of his working life Sister Timmington, who also could be uncompromising, supported him as ward sister (she died in 2003), and together with the consultant anaesthetist Roger Lee they acted as a formidable triumvirate. As different as chalk and cheese, and yet they formed a mutually supporting team.
Arnold examined for the Royal College of Surgeons and produced two Hunterian lectures based on duodenal and biliary atresia. In the early 1960s he spent time in Ethiopia, teaching and operating, and helping to support the development of a new medical school, within what was then still Haile Selassie’s feudal society. In 1973, and not to universal approval from his peers, he took time off to assist Israeli surgeons in the Yom Kippur war.
He was driven by a strong competitive instinct, and this pervaded many of his activities such as walking, golf, and squash. He had a keen sense of right and wrong and, in later years, an understanding from whence he had come—and this invariably translated into supporting the underdog. He was capable of great thoughtfulness and understanding, particularly when the artistic side of his nature was allowed to surface.
Troubled on occasions with the "black dog," he was supported throughout his working life and retirement by his wife, Corinne. With her support he slipped into retirement without much difficulty. Initially he spent time organising the Sands Cox Society and the Aesculapius magazine for Birmingham Medical School alumni. He pursued his interest in Hebrew, taking the GCSE many times, and continued with his painting.
His last years were difficult, as he became less mobile, more uncertain, and increasingly dependent on Corinne. He experienced some loss of memory in the latter years, and probably suffered several cerebral transient ischaemic episodes prior to his final illness. He leaves Corinne; his children, Gillian, Naomi, David, Daniel, and Samuel; and nine grandchildren here and in Israel. [David Gourevitch, Gillian Jebb, David Jebb, Sam Gourevitch]
See more
- Introductory AddressProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 1-4; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.1
- Report of the Meeting of the Eastern Branch of the Provincial Association at Bury St. Edmond'sProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 10-13; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.10
- Mr. Warburton's Bill for the Regulation of the Medical ProfessionProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 13-15; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.13
- An Atlas of Plates, illustrative of the Principles and Practice of Obstetric Medicine and Surgery, with descriptive LetterpressProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 4; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.4
- A Practical Treatise on the Diseases peculiar to Women, illustrated by Cases, &cProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 4-5; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.4-a