Cover image for
Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E000926 - Eastcott, Harry Hubert Grayson (1917 - 2009)
Title:
Eastcott, Harry Hubert Grayson (1917 - 2009)
Author:
Averil Mansfield
Identifier:
RCS: E000926
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2010-04-28
Description:
Obituary for Eastcott, Harry Hubert Grayson (1917 - 2009), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Eastcott, Harry Hubert Grayson
Date of Birth:
17 October 1917
Place of Birth:
Montreal, Canada
Date of Death:
25 October 2009
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 1941

FRCS 1946

MB BS London 1941

MS 1951

LRCP 1941

Hon FACS 1946

Hon FRACS 1978

FRCOG 1981
Details:
Harry Hubert Grayson Eastcott, known as ‘Felix’, was the first man to perform carotid endarterectomy, thereby preventing strokes in countless patients. He was born in Montreal, Canada, on 17 October 1917, the son of Henry George Eastcott, a resident engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Gladys née Tozer. The family returned to England in 1920 and he was educated at Hoe Grammar School, Plymouth, the Latymer School, Edmonton, and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. When a student in the anatomy class, he was observed by Neil Pantin to walk along leaning forwards with his hands behind his back, like the cartoon cat, and henceforward became known as ‘Felix’. As a student he played the piano in a honky-tonk band, which included Harding Rains on trumpet. He qualified with honours in 1941 and without delay went on to sit and pass the primary FRCS. He was house surgeon at the Hammersmith Hospital under Grey Turner and Dick Franklin, where he met a theatre nurse, Doreen Joy (‘Bobbie’), the daughter of Brenchley Ernest and Muriel Mittell. They were married in 1941. He then joined the RNVR and served throughout the war, reaching the rank of surgeon lieutenant-commander, and during his service visited Australia for the first time. On demobilisation, he returned to St Mary’s to work for Dickson Wright and Sir Arthur (later Lord) Porritt, and passed the final FRCS at the sixth attempt. An exchange sponsored by Arthur Porritt took him in 1949 to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, where he came under the surgical mentorship of Charles Huffnagal and learned the latest techniques of vascular surgery. On his return, he passed his masters in surgery, gave a Hunterian Lecture on arterial replacement with grafts, and became assistant director (honorary consultant) of the surgical unit under Charles Rob. It was in 1954 that he performed the first operation to prevent strokes. The patient was Ada Tuckwell, who had had many transient ischaemic attacks. The decision was taken by Denis Brinton and Pickering to carry out arteriography – in those days a hazardous procedure. This revealed a short stenosis of the internal carotid artery, the source of the previous emboli. Charles Rob delegated the operation to Felix. He had grave concerns that this might induce a stroke during the operation, but Rob and Pickering took the view that without it this would happen inevitably. May 19th was a cold day. The operating theatre was chilled. Ice packs were placed over the patient to reduce the risk of brain damage. Felix remarked that you could almost hear the nurses’ teeth chattering. The operation was carried out in the presence of some members of the council of the American College of Surgeons who were visiting the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Happily, the operation was successful and the patient lived for another 20 years without neurological symptoms. It was a superb outcome for the patient, but even more for mankind as this opened the doors for stroke prevention surgery on a major scale. Felix always referred to it as ‘my little operation’, but its impact was anything other than little. In a later article he quoted Winston Churchill as saying: ‘We have reached the end of the beginning’. He remained anxious about its scientific credentials until the results of a large multicentre trial showed once and for all just how valuable it had been in preventing stroke. Eastcott’s vascular surgical practice grew steadily from then on and he attracted the complex and difficult cases to St Mary’s and the other hospitals with which he had a connection, the Royal Masonic Hospital and King Edward VII Hospital for Officers. His book *Arterial surgery* (London, Pitman Medical) was another major contribution. It had been suggested to him by Zachary Cope, but it took several years to prepare and was finally published in 1969. It was a big success. Two further editions followed, the third in 1992, almost 10 years after he retired. He published extensively and was the editorial secretary of the *British Journal of Surgery*. Felix received many invitations to lecture around the world, particularly in the USA and Australia. In 1973 he was the King’s Fund travelling fellow to Australia and New Zealand. He was honoured in many countries and by many colleges and received honorary fellowships from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He received the Fothergill gold medal of the Medical Society of London 1974 and the Galen medal of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1993. At the Royal College of Surgeons, he was an examiner from 1964 to 1970, a council member from 1971, vice-president from 1981 to 1982, and was acting president for a few weeks after the untimely death of Sir Alan Parks. He was a Hunterian professor and Bradshaw lecturer and was awarded the Cecil Joll prize. An enthusiastic Freemason, he ensured a continuous and major source of funding for the College from the Grand Lodge. He was later appointed to the Court of Patrons. Long after his retirement, Felix would attend early morning meetings in the vascular unit at St Mary’s, when he would recall in vivid detail some of his old patients and their problems. He loved his work: on one occasion in the middle of an operation he turned to his anaesthetist, Harry Thornton, and said, ‘Harry, I can’t believe they are paying us to do this’. Felix had many other interests. He always supported the music society at St Mary’s and sometimes participated. He loved to play the piano and did so most days after dinner: he called this ‘washing-up music’. Since his prep-school days he had been fascinated by flying and flew his own Tiger Moth. He was an elegant skier, an accomplished linguist, and a member of the Garrick Club. He had a few helpful encounters with the medical world. Once, in Australia, he choked on a piece of meat. He whispered hoarsely ‘Heimlich, Heimlich’. Sir Peter Bell responded with life-saving speed. Long before many of his contemporaries he appreciated the importance of non-invasive measurements in vascular disease, and so began the Irvine Laboratory, established by John Hobbs and W T Irvine. Felix supported Andrew Nicolaides and made sure that he combined vascular and cardiac surgical skills, at that time unique in the UK though common in the USA. At St Mary’s he worked closely with a wide group of colleagues, especially Ian Kenyon, Lance Bromley and Mike Snell. He also maintained close contact with other surgeons both in London, like Roger Greenhalgh at Charing Cross, and the USA, such as Michael de Bakey. He was president of the Vascular Surgical Society, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the Medical Society of London. He contributed to the design for the tie of the Vascular Surgeons, which was based on a postcard received from Dickson Wright showing an artery dancing with a vein. He was the college visitor to the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from 1972 to 1980. He was president of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1997. A romantic soul, he dearly loved his wife and family. He died on 25 October 2009. A memorial service in St Clement Danes was attended by the president and council of our college and the council of the Vascular Society of Great Britain.
Sources:
[*Ann R Coll Surg Engl* (suppl) 2010;92

*BMJ* 2010 340 1423

John P Blandy *The history of the College Council Club* (London, RCS, 2001)].
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
Media Type:
Unknown