Christopher James Linstrom was born on 22 March 1950 in Washington, D.C., the son of Mary and John Linstrom. Brought up in Greenbelt, Maryland, he initially graduated in philosophy and music from the University of Maryland. On moving to Canada he studied medicine at McGill University, Montreal. While he was there he founded (and became president of) the McGill Faculty of Medicine Refugee Fund to support the Vietnamese Boat People in their efforts to emigrate to Canada. Following his internship at McGill, he completed a residency at Cornell University Medical College and a fellowship in otology and neurotology at the Michigan Ear Institute. A fellow of the American Board of Otolaryngology and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada, he was awarded the fellowship of the college ad eundum in 2001. He had been professor of otolaryngology at the New York Medical College and was a visiting professor of otolaryngology at the Medical University of Southern Africa. For 26 years he was surgeon director of otology, neurotology and skull base surgery at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, where his research concentrated on studies in facial nerve and hearing restoration. While there he carried out the infirmary’s first cochlear implant on a ten year old patient, establishing Mount Sinai’s reputation as a leading centre in the field. A popular and member of staff, he was much in demand as a speaker and published extensively. Outside medicine he had a wide range of interests and performed internationally as a musician and singer. When he died suddenly on 17 February 2016, aged 65 years, he was survived by his partner Swee Khing Hong and his siblings: Mary, John, Katherine, Nora, Joan, Gerard, Elizabeth and David, and many nieces, nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.