Susanna Elizabeth Jane Leighton née Hurley was a consultant paediatric otolaryngologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She was born in Kobe, Japan, on 20 January 1959. She qualified at St Thomas's Hospital, London, where she completed an intercalated BSc in anatomy, and was vice-president of the Amalgamated Clubs and secretary of the Medical and Physical Society. After house jobs, she decided to train as a surgeon, and became the lead surgeon on the cochlear implant team at Great Ormond Street. She also developed an interest in airway management in craniosynostosis and wrote extensively on the subject, producing guidelines. She married Barry and had a daughter (Claudia) and two sons (John and Finn). She died from metastatic breast cancer on 6 August 2004.