Hugh Bentall

Hugh BentallFRCS(28 April 1920 – 9 September 2012) was a British surgeon who pioneeredopen-heart surgery.

Career

Hugh Henry Bentall was educated atSeaford Collegeand studied medicine atSt Bartholomew's HospitalinLondon.After graduating he worked asgeneral surgeonat theNorth Middlesex Hospital(where he assisted in Britain's first successfulpulmonary embolectomyand in the first successful surgical correction ofOesophageal atresia) and at theLondon Chest Hospitalwhere he specialised inthoracic surgery.He then joined theRoyal Navyand served in Britain and on the hospital shipEmpire Clydein thePacific Fleet,and later inSingaporetreating liberated prisoners of war.

Bentall was Consultant Thoracic Surgeon atHammersmith Hospitalfrom 1955 to 1985. In 1959 he and his team, withBill Clelandas the lead surgeon, were invited to visit theInstitute of Cardiovascular SurgeryinMoscowwhere they carried out five open-heart operations, watched by more than 200 of theSoviet Union's leading surgeons. In 1962 he performed an operation to repair a"hole in the heart"which was filmed for theBBCTV seriesYour Life in Their Hands.In 1966 he devised a procedure to treat a patient withMarfan syndrome,replacing the aortic valve and ascending aorta in a single operation. This is now known as theBentall procedureand is widely used.

Bentall taught at theRoyal Postgraduate Medical Schoolfrom 1959 as lecturer, from 1962 asreaderand from 1965 as Britain's first Professor of Cardiac Surgery. He retired in 1985.

References

• BENTALL, Hugh Henry,Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012, retrieved 29 Oct 2012
• Obituary – Professor Hugh Bentall,The Telegraph,London, 30 October 2012
• Obituary – Hugh Bentall, 1920-2012,Times Higher Education,London, 11 October 2012
• Bentall Procedure for Giant Ascending Aortic Aneurysm VIDEO
• Obituary - William "Bill" Cleland,The Guardian,London, 21 May 2005. Author Hugh Bentall
• Obiturary - Hugh Henry BentallBMJ2012345:e8010, 8 December 2012