Life in Her Hands: The Inspiring Story of a Pioneering Female Surgeon

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She received little encouragement from her teachers, either, and is amused by the memory of one school report that said she was ‘no good at sewing’, given what an expert in suturing she became. Mansfield was born 11 years before the advent of the NHS – she recalls her parents saving money in a jar on the mantelpiece to pay medical bills – and witnessed the many benefits it provided as well as huge advances in technology during her years in practice. Mansfield retired from surgery in 2002. [4] She was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2005, and was elected president of the British Medical Association in 2009–2010. [1] In 2012 she was voted one of "100 Women Who Have Changed the World" by The Independent on Sunday. [1] Women in Surgery is not about positive discrimination, but giving support that can help women on their way and make sure they get the advice they need. Dame Averil Olive Bradley DBE FRCS FRCP (née Mansfield; born 21 June 1937 [1]), known professionally as Averil Mansfield, is a retired English vascular surgeon. She was a consultant surgeon at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, central London, from 1982 to 2002, and in 1993 she became the first British woman to be appointed a professor of surgery.

Life in Her Hands - Penguin Books UK

There was one man in my clinic at St Mary’s with an aortic aneurysm who stripped naked and laid on the couch for me to examine him,” recalls Mansfield. “Afterwards I said: ‘Put your clothes on and we’ll have a chat’ and he said: ‘When will I see Professor Mansfield?’ Of course, women have struggled in the past, but Mansfield, who is 65, insists that surgery can be plain sailing, the perfect career for a woman and.... I believe her. She exudes trust. She is tall, calm, imposing, charming and if I had to have an enormous five-hour, life-threatening operation, I would want her to do it. After I retired in 2003, I took on the chairmanship of the Stroke Association for five years which was a wonderful experience. I went all over the country and really enjoyed watching the average person’s knowledge of stroke develop from almost complete ignorance to quite a sophisticated understanding. I then spent one year as the BMA’s president and another five years as the chairman of the BMA’s board of science in addition to a number of other charitable roles. After qualifying as a doctor in 1960, Averil trained as a general surgeon, and became a consultant in Liverpool in 1972, at a time when just 2% of surgeons were women. Averil's account shines light on a medical and societal world that has changed beyond measure, but which - as she shows through her experiences - still has a long way to go for the women finding their place within it.However, she is enormously grateful to him for giving her three step-children and six step-grandchildren, to whom she is “very close”.

Averil Mansfield | Waterstones Life in Her Hands by Averil Mansfield | Waterstones

But being able to offer such a choice does not appear to be on the horizon. At present only 6.3% of female medical students take up surgery, although women make up nearly 70% of the intake at some medical schools. (The usual figure is 50/50.)Anaesthesia has improved in leaps and bounds during my time as a surgeon. When I started in 1960, anaesthesia was not nearly as sophisticated as it is now and there was no such thing as an intensive care unit. The anaesthetist keeps the patient alive while we surgeons carry out major and, sometimes, quite hazardous procedures. They have the knowledge and skills to maintain the integrity of a patient’s cardiovascular system during the course of the procedure. As surgeons we depend on the anaesthetist and it’s very much a partnership. I’ve worked with some wonderful anaesthetists and I’ve always been grateful for how they ensure patients are well looked after.

Life in Her Hands by Averil Mansfield | Waterstones

Professor Averil Mansfield spent over 20 years as a vascular surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital. In 1993, she became the first female professor of surgery in the UK and used her profile to encourage more women to join the profession. She served on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons and later as its vice president. She also served as president of the Vascular Surgical Society and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and, in 1999 was awarded a CBE for services to surgery and women in medicine. In May 2018, she was given an NHS Heroes Award. Professor Mansfield talks to us about her career highlights, being a role model and how her specialty has changed over the years. Dame Averil says: “At no point did I have my sights set on the top of the ladder, or anything like it. I simply wanted to progress to the next step as I went along, one rung at a time. The book, Life in Her Hands, details Averil’s trailblazing career, qualifying as a surgeon in 1972, a time when just two per cent of her colleagues were female. She was outraged when the Dean of St Mary’s, Professor Peter Richards, issued a statement that she was appointed “purely and only on merit”. Averil said: “It suddenly must have occurred to him, ‘Oh, perhaps everyone will think we are giving her the job because she is a woman’.” Born in 1937, Averil studied at Liverpool University’s School of Medicine and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine in 1960. Averil began her career at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital before becoming a lecturer in surgery at the University. She later become consultant vascular surgeon at St Mary’s hospital in London.If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us Mansfield began her career at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, and became a consultant vascular surgeon there in 1972 and later a lecturer in surgery at the University of Liverpool. She then moved to London in 1980 to work at Hillingdon Hospital. Two years later, she was appointed by St Mary's Hospital in Paddington as a consultant vascular surgeon. [1] She was an honorary senior lecturer at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, which merged with the Imperial College School of Medicine in 1988. [1] [3] She remained at St Mary's for the rest of her career, while also serving as an honorary consultant in paediatric and vascular surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital. [1] Her parents spent years trying to deter their headstrong daughter from pursuing an ambition sparked at the age of eight as she thumbed through medical books in her local library.

Averil Mansfield publishes inspiring Trailblazing surgeon Averil Mansfield publishes inspiring

My mother thought I was being ridiculous, that the daughter of a housewife and a welder living in social housing could not enter the medical profession, but finally came round to the idea when she saw I wasn’t giving up.” Pioneering surgeon blazed a trail for women in medicine, becoming the UK’s first female professor of surgery. I don’t believe I did anything exceptional during all those years, any more or less than anyone else in my position would have done,” she says. “I was extremely fortunate to have a lot of help all the way along, not least in the early years when I was trained by a wonderful surgeon, Edgar Parry, whose aspiration it was to make the next generation of surgeons better than he was. That’s a sentiment I’ve always admired and tried to emulate. The other problem was that this was the era of the mini skirt, and you can imagine what that meant. And now she has retired. Will she miss it all dreadfully? Guess the answer. "No." But I suspect she will be missed.But time and again, Averil proved herself more than capable of the role which had been her greatest dream since the age of eight. She founded Women in Surgery, a Royal College of Surgeons initiative to encourage more women to enter the field. [5] In May 2018, she was given a NHS Heroes Award. [5] Imaging has changed beyond all recognition since I first became a surgeon. I’ve lived through the advent of ultrasound, CT and MRI scanning – none of them existed when I qualified as a doctor. All of these things have made diagnosis more reliable and considerably easier and also help us plan for surgery. In one of my earliest aortic aneurysms, one of the patient’s kidneys was down in their pelvis which meant that the blood supply to the kidney was going to be cut off when I did the operation. It was perfectly feasible to proceed, and I successfully completed the operation, but today surgeons know things like that ahead of time and can make arrangements to ensure the procedure goes smoothly. I think the most important thing for young surgeons to establish is whether this is the career they really want. It’s not easy – students don’t always have enough time in each specialty that they are exposed to and once you commit to a specialty, you’re in that job for 40 years plus. No matter how much we talk about hours of work and managing training, surgery is a very demanding branch of the profession – you cannot walk away in the middle of something, you have to see it through. It’s important to make sure this is what you really want for your life. If it is as easy as Mansfield suggests for a woman to become a surgeon, why do so few attempt it? "I think because they don't try it in the first place. It's certainly not the most popular speciality for girls, and this is why the college is so keen to encourage women to at least think about surgery as a career and not just dismiss it as something for men. There's nothing at all to prevent women from doing it, except they'll need some time off for their babies, maybe go part-time for a while. I've got three stepchildren, quite young. I haven't had the same experience as someone who gave birth themselves, but I understand the difficulties.