An Irish physician is acknowledged to be the founder of modern anaesthesia, writes Mary Mulvihill.
Ever had a general anaesthetic? Then give thanks to Irish doctor Sir Ivan Magill, for it was he who helped make modern anaesthetics safe and effective.
Mind you, the first person to undergo surgery had no need of Magill's innovations. According to Genesis, before the Lord God removed Adam's rib, he caused a deep sleep to fall on the patient. Other patients awaiting surgery were not so lucky, and for centuries the best they could hope for was alcohol or opium to numb the pain.
Even in the late 1800s, by which time scientists had discovered the anaesthetic effects of chloroform, ether and nitrous oxide (laughing gas), surgeons continued to rely on "surprise and speed" - ideally amputating a limb in just a few minutes - and using strong straps to restrain the victim.
Patients offered an anaesthetic might have thought twice about taking it. There was a fine line between giving enough anaesthetic to put them to sleep, and giving them a fatal overdose.
One person who helped change all that by making anaesthetics safe and effective was Ivan Magill, born in Larne, Co Antrim, in 1888. Magill invented ingenious techniques that allowed the anaesthetist to deliver the anaesthetic, the patient to breathe and the surgeon to operate. The result was a safer operating theatre and a safer operating table.
When Magill started working with anaesthetics at the end of the first World War, there was no such thing as a specialist anaesthetist, and the ether was as likely to be administered by a physician as by a passing porter wielding a bottle and rag. Magill worked in particular with Harold Gillies, who reconstructed the shattered faces of soldiers injured in the war. These patients posed special problems: administering the anaesthetic without getting in the way of the operation; controlling the dose without also anaesthetising the surgeon; and keeping the patient breathing.
Magill's first major contribution was a way of placing a breathing tube into a patient's windpipe through their neck. This endotracheal intubation, which is still used, made the facial surgery easier and meant the surgeon was less likely to be overcome by the anaesthetic. Magill also developed a suction technique to clear phlegm from the lungs of TB patients, making lung surgery easier, and in the 1930s he invented the sophisticated breathing and anaesthetic delivery system which made chest and heart operations possible.
Not surprising then, that this Irish physician is acknowledged as a father of modern anaesthesia. Ivan Magill, who died in 1986, was awarded numerous international awards and the department where he worked at Westminster Hospital, London, is named in his honour.
Magill is just one of the many people featured in Mary Mulvihill's award-winning book, Ingenious Ireland (TownHouse 2002).