Tribute to Margaret Elizabeth Dodson

Margaret Elizabeth Dodson was an exceptional woman of high intellect and a huge work ethic. She also had a strong Christian faith. As she died this year at the age of only 74, it is timely to consider her contributions to anaesthesia and beyond.

Margaret was born in 1933 into a Quaker family on the Wirral. Her father ran his own building business and she had one brother, Martin. Martin was sent to a Quaker boarding school, leaving Margaret somewhat lonely. Margaret passed the entrance examination to West Kirby Girls Grammar School with ease. From there she entered the University of Sheffield, graduating in 1957. She started anaesthetics in St Catherine’s Hospital, Birkenhead, and subsequently was appointed a Lecturer in Anaesthesia at the University of Liverpool, under the supervision of Professor T Cecil Gray. In 1968, she completed her MD thesis entitled: Changes in liver function following general anaesthesia and operation as assessed by an extended sulphobromophthalein test.

Her interest in hepatic dysfunction continued throughout her clinical practice. After gaining her higher degree, duty called her to work as a consultant anaesthetist in Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. There she became so involved with the local Anglican church that she paid for the schooling and subsequently for the university education of two of the local boys. One is a minister in the Church of England today.

After two years in Kampala Margaret was appointed senior lecturer in anaesthetics in Manchester University where she remained for 10 years working for Professor Parkhouse. On his retirement, she returned to Liverpool as a Consultant Anaesthetist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. She developed an interest in acute postoperative pain well before it had developed into the subspecialty that we know today. Such was her interest that, by 1985, she had single-handedly produced a monograph on the subject which still stands as the original text in its field.

In Liverpool she encountered a large population of elderly patients with multiple organ pathologies. There were no healthy, young Liverpudlian patients waiting for Margaret on the urology, orthopaedic or general surgical wards. Never fearful of any challenge, and always moving around the hospital and operating theatres at great speed, she developed an interest in anaesthesia for the elderly. True to character, Margaret recognised the need to form an interested group. The creation of the Age Anaesthesia Association arose from this concern and her contacts with like-minded colleagues such as Harold Davenport and Bartle Clark.

Margaret took on responsibility for the training of post-fellowship registrars and senior registrars in Mersey Region when she returned to Liverpool, becoming the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ Deputy Regional Adviser from 1984 to 1988. I was fortunate to be her deputy at that time. With great diligence, absolute fairness (and the occasional severe reprimand), she treated every trainee the same, never tolerating dull sloth and encouraging even the slightest show of initiative. I learned much from her in these respects at that time. She completed this role in 1988 to become Admissions Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Liverpool until 1992. There she demonstrated the same skills and talents: unfailing energy, unforgiving standards, and complete commitment. Straight questions always demanded straight answers, and Margaret feared no one. She was, in so many ways, a formidable and yet at times acerbic woman.

Aged 60, Margaret decided to follow a different path. From 1993, she undertook reader training in the Church of England and after licensing was attached to All Souls Church, Springwood, Liverpool. Yet again, she gave the job her all: the people, the clergy, and the ailing building received her generous attention. Cycling around her parish she had found a completely new life and medicine was left behind. It was while she was immersed in this new task that she started to develop difficulty with her speech. Dementia cruelly crept in to this intelligent woman’s agile brain and rapidly destroyed it. Ultimately, she had to leave her “Liverpool home” and enter a nursing home near her brother in Yorkshire. There she died, a shadow of her former self; a great lady, who departed this life too soon.

It is fitting that her brother brought Margaret back to Liverpool to be buried. A pastor from Kampala, whose education Margaret had financed, contributed to the celebration of her busy and productive life. The occasion would have pleased her inestimably, but those of us who were present, mourned our loss.

Jennifer M Hunter, University of Liverpool

HOME PAGE