Seligman Swartzman Gillis Sandman Joffe Yachad Lederman Fleishman

Leon Gillis and thalidomide During this period, two other developments took place which reflected the Hospital’s traditional concern for the limbless and demonstrated a quality of treatment and rehabilitation beyond the experience of its founders. In February 1963 the Board was requested by the Minister of Health to establish a special unit “for the provision of prostheses, and especially of powered arm prostheses for children with severe skeletal defects.” Children with congenital deformities had been treated at Roehampton for some years, but their numbers had been increased by the “thalidomide babies” of 1959-62, victims of the drug given to their mothers during pregnancy. The new powered limbs demanded an intensive programme of limb-fitting and training; for the children much of this took place in the playroom which formed the centre of the Unit (named after Leon Gillis). This unit treated over 80 per cent of all the babies affected by thalidomide in this country. In later years, the Unit was adapted to cope with the needs of adolescent patients. A long planned 12-bed Limb Surgery Unit, which aimed at an integrated and comprehensive programme of amputation, limb-fitting and rehabilitation which would surely have gladdened the hearts of Perkins and Buxton, was finally opened in 1974. In spite of the frustrations, much progress was being made in the development of Queen Mary’s as a hospital serving its local communi ty. The long promised Obstetrics and Oral Surgery Units were both officially opened in 1968, and psychiatric services were added in 1972. The site which had seemed so extensive was shrinking fast. In 1964 an estimate was obtained for moving Roehampton House on rollers to another location; it would have cost £58,000. This scheme was one of many which never came to fruition. In spite of its successes, the Board felt that such improvements were piecemeal. What was really needed was an overall plan for the development of Queen Mary’s as a district general hospital of 1100 beds. As the second half of the decade and the projected redevelopment date approached, the Ministry began to hedge. When in 1965 the Board was considering purchasing some more land in Roehampton Lane with a view to redevelopment, the Ministry would not commit itself to what size of hospital would eventually be planned, nor whether it would be the only one in the area, and because of this uncertainty the projected purchase was abandoned. https://archives.friendsqmh.com/modern-times/

Gillis, Leon (1908 - 1967) Identifier: RCS: E005746 Full Name: Gillis, Leon Date of Birth: 4 September 1908 Date of Death: 9 August 1967 Place of Death: Birmingham, Alabama, USA Occupation: Orthopaedic surgeon Titles/Qualifications: MBE 1947 MRCS and FRCS 1945 MB BCh Witwatersrand 1935 MCh Orth Liverpool 1937 DLO 1940 FRCS Edin 1942 Details: Leon Gillis was born 4 September 1908, and had his schooling and undergraduate medical education in South Africa, obtaining the degrees of bachelor of medicine and of surgery at Witwatersrand University in 1935. He then came to England for postgraduate education and after study at Liverpool, in 1937 became master of orthopaedic surgery of that University. A spell in general practice and experience in many short term appointments in and around Liverpool followed. He obtained the diploma of laryngo-otology of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, London and in 1942 became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Shortly after, he was appointed orthopaedic surgeon to Queen Mary's (Roehampton) Hospital. In 1945, when he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, he realized that he had found the surgical work for which he was fitted and he continued in this until his death over twenty years later. For the first quarter of a century of its existence, Queen Mary's Hospital had been occupied particularly by amputees, mostly from the first world war and the surgical control and direction was largely in the hands of Muirhead Little, Elmslie, and Verrall; George Perkins joined the staff during the second world war and associated himself with Kelham in amputation policy. The appointment of Gillis differed from that of these surgeons as he spent nearly full time at Roehampton and in his earlier years had few outside demands on his services. He took charge of wards occupied by soldiers and pensioners suffering from old and recent 'orthopaedic lesions'. The majority were the result of major wounds and many required amputation. A visit to the wards and study of the lectures and writing of Gillis showed his great experience and views on amputations. There was a time when he was one of the very few specialists in such operations. As an operator he was thoughtful, careful and meticulous in his technique. He was greatly interested in the provision of artificial limbs for those whose limbs he had amputated. His knowledge of his subject was recognized in his appointment as Arris and Gale lecturer (1948), as Hunterian Professor (1956), as Joseph Henry lecturer (1960) and Erasmus Wilson demonstrator (1964). Collectively these lectures were mostly concerned with the child amputee. In considering advances he referred to kineplastic amputations and Krukenberg's operation and described what was current teaching for irrecoverable brachial plexus injury, the arm being amputated and shoulder arthrodesed. Many examples of treatment for long bone deficiency were described and the help that can be given for the absence of one or more limbs. The surgery advisable before fitting of a prosthesis was discussed. He described prostheses and other appliances giving particular information about fixation to the body and the many terminal devices that are used with artificial limbs. Powered limbs had not been available when this was published. The stage after the provision of the appliance, he points out, is the decision regarding the correct job for child or adult. As a teacher he had greater opportunity to help postgraduates than undergraduates and his work was more suited for such. However, during the last fifteen years at Roehampton there was a proportion of general orthopaedic work, which increased when the hospital became one of the Westminster group of hospitals. He had held appointments in orthopaedic surgery at East Ham Hospital and at Barking Hospital and for nearly twenty years was consulting orthopaedic surgeon to St John's Hospital, Battersea and since 1956 had been chairman of the medical committee. As an author he was responsible for three books, of which Amputations (1954) and Artificial limbs (1957) are well-known. Of the contributions to textbooks, those on amputations in Operative surgery, by Charles Rob and Rodney Smith (1956-8), are important. Of his original articles, the most noteworthy are Cancer as a sequel to war wounds, Six cases of arthroplasty of the hip in amputations, and those on the nursing care of amputations. These contributions to contemporary specialist surgery have considerable merit. Gillis was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association, a Founder fellow of the British Chapter of the International College of Surgeons and a Founder Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of South Africa. In 1947 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division). He showed his ability more by his writings than by conversation and there is little doubt that he enjoyed this writing as much as his home life and his motor car. He was married, but left no children. He died in Birmingham, Alabama, on 9 August following an operation. Author: Royal College of Surgeons of England Sources: Brit med J 1967, 3, 562, with portrait, by AGR Lancet 1967, 2, with appreciation by AWLK Wandsworth Borough News 18 August 1967, 1 Rights: Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England Publication Date: created: 4 August 2014 Collection: Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

IN MEMORIAM THE JOURNAL OF BONE AND JOINT SURGERY LEON GILI.IS 1908-1967 The name of Leon Gillis is so closely associated with the development of modern amputation surgery in Great Britain that mention of the one, in surgical circles, immediately suggests the other. Equally is he identified with Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, where most of his professional life was spent and which he served with loyalty and single-mindedness for almost twenty-five years. Gillis was born in Johannesburg in 1908 and qualified in medicine at the University of Witwatersrand in 1935. He held three house appointments in Johannesburg General Hospital but then came to England for postgraduate ex- perience, and like many another young Dominion doctor stayed here for the rest of his life. Completely acclimatised as an Englishman, he yet never lost his affection for, and loyalty to, his native South Africa. His first appointment in England was as orthopaedic house surgeon in the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital, and it was literally no time at all before he took the M.Ch.(Orth.) at Liverpool University. Then followed a rather curious deviation from what appeared to be his chosen career : he took two appointments in oto-laryngology and passed the examination for the D.L.O. in 1940. Soon back in orthopaedics, however, he took the Edinburgh fellowship in 1942 and the English fellowship in 1945. He learnt traumatic surgery the hard way in Birkenhead Municipal Hospital while Birkenhead was the target for heavy German bombing raids. In 1943, after a short period in lpswich, he came to London as orthopaedic surgeon to Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. Queen Mary’s was at that time run directly by the Ministry of Pensions and existed primarily for the care of wounded ex-servicemen. Here he found his metier, and successive echelons of ex-servicemen owed their rehabilitation to his skill and care. The needs of war pensioners and the responsibility of the country to provide them with the highest possible standards of medical care were always in the forefront of his thoughts, and continued to hold his enthusiasm and devotion after Queen Mary’s became a general hospital serving the local population. A large proportion of his ex-service patients had either lost limbs in action or required amputation later, so that it was perhaps natural that he should make this his special field. He was one of the first to see amputation and limb fitting as inseparable parts of one operation, and to insist that the surgeon who amputates a limb should have the knowledge and skill necessary to plan the whole process of rehabilitation. He wrote two books on this subject-Amputations (1945) and Artificial Limbs (1947)-and both have become standard works. His opinion and advice on special problems in amputation and limb fitting were sought by orthopaedic, vascular and general surgeons all over England and from overseas. His orthopaedic interests, however, were by no means confined to amputations. He did IN MEMORIAM 217 original work, particularly in the biomechanical field, in the early days of hip arthroplasty, explored cine-radiological techniques, and showed the value of hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment ofchronic osteomyelitis. He had also an unrivalled knowledge of congenital limb deformities, even before thalidomide cast its dark shadow on the scene, and made valuable contributions to their management at the Children’s Prosthetic Unit at Roehampton. He had few interests outside surgery, but within it no aspect of professional activity escaped his attention. Research, teaching, administration-all made claims on his time and energy. In addition to his work at Roehampton he was until 1961 consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the East Ham Memorial Hospital, Barking Hospital and St John’s Hospital, Battersea. He was also consultant to the Ministry of Health’s Limb Fitting Centre at Roehampton and surgical adviser to the Treasury. Somehow he found time too for regular attendance at the Greenmead school for physically handicapped children. He was a stimulating teacher, as a long succession of his registrars will testify, and his biannual postgraduate courses were in demand, not only for candidates for the Fellowship examination, but from established consultants too. He was a founder fellow of the British Chapter of the International College of Surgeons, and also of the South African College of Surgeons and Physicians. He served on two hospital management committees, and on the orthopaedic advisory committee of the North-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. He wrote prolifically-original papers, contributions to nursing journals, chapters in at least ten major textbooks, the textbooks already mentioned-and he had a textbook of orthopaedic diagnosis awaiting publication when he died. He was an active member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and was three times honoured by the College-by the Arris and Gale lectureship in 1948, a Hunterian professorship in 1956 and the Joseph Henry Memorial lectureship in 1960. In 1947 he was honoured by the award of the M.B.E. Few could have spent themselves more unremittingly in the service of surgery than he, and it is hard to resist the thought that he burnt himself out before his time. In his last few years he was increasingly restricted by ill health, but he fought most gallantly against it. Finally, faced with the choice between resignation from all surgical activity and the acceptance of an operation whose high risk he fully appreciated, he bravely and clear-sightedly chose the latter. We mourn his passing, saluting the single-minded enthusiasm with which he lived his life and the courage with which he met its end. https://boneandjoint.org.uk/Article/10.1302/0301-620X.50B1.216/pdf