CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 25, No 4, July/August 2014
AFRICA
191
In Memoriam
Mr Donald Nixon Ross
4 October 1922 to 7 July 2014 (91 years)
We are deeply saddened by the loss of
our great teacher Donald Ross, a truly
global mentor in cardiac surgery, a friend,
a respectful colleague, an admirer, and
custodian of our profession, who passed
away on July 7, 2014.
On behalf of the community of cardiac
surgeons I would like to share our sincere
condolences and deepest sympathy during
this time of grief with Barbara Ross and
the family.
Donald Ross was born of Scottish
parents on October 4, 1922 in Kimberley,
Republic of South Africa, and was a
fellow student of Christiaan Barnard
at the University of Cape Town. After
completion of his medical school training,
he came to the United Kingdom in 1947
to pursue his cardiothoracic surgical
career. He was appointed as the senior
registrar in the Department of Thoracic
Surgery at the University Hospital,
Bristol in 1952 and at the Guy’s Hospital,
London in 1954. He took the position
of consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at
the Guy’s Hospital in 1958 and at the
National Heart Hospital in 1963, and
subsequently became a senior surgeon in
1967. He was appointed as the Director
of the Department of Surgery, Institute
of Cardiology, London, in 1970 and
retired in 1997 from there.
1
Many surgeons came to London
to learn the artistry of Donald Ross’s
pioneering reconstructive surgery of the
aortic root using the aortic homograft
and the pulmonary autograft (the
eponymous ‘Ross procedure’) as well as
that of the right ventricular outflow tract
during his times at the National Heart
Hospital, the Harley Street Clinic, and
the Italian Hospital.
2-5
I first met him
in 1975 during my paediatric cardiac
surgery training at the Hospital for Sick
Children, Great Ormond Street. Later
it was a great privilege and honour to
be invited by the European Association
for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS)
to comment on the article of this great
surgeon titled ‘The pulmonary autograft
– a permanent aortic valve’ during the 5th
annual meeting in London in September
1991.
6
Donald Ross epitomised biological
aortic root surgery following the credo
that since God created the aortic root as
non-thrombogenic and non-obstructive
anatomical units, the relationship between
its morphology and function should
be maintained to allow an unimpeded
physiological blood flow.
He has reigned as a caretaker of
‘reconstructive surgery of the left and
right ventricular outflow tracts’ and
served it admirably in his unpretentious,
dignified but very effective way.
Donald Ross also paved the way for
heart transplantation in Britain. He
performed the first operation of this kind
in Britain on May 3, 1968 at the National
Heart Hospital, closely following the
world’s first heart transplantation by
Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town on
December 3, 1967.
7
For many colleagues who experienced
his utterly honest and forthright ways
during his reign as a global champion
in cardiac surgery and as a teacher, he
has made an indelible mark and won
an undying respect. He set a shining
example of the kind of unconditional
passion required to see a cardiac surgery
profession through good times and bad.
Donald Ross was a gentle spirit
who loved passionately and who gave
unselfishly of his time and himself.
Though he has departed from this earth,
his soul is still alive in our minds and
hearts to guide the present and the
coming generation and cardiac surgery
as a whole.
May his soul rest in peace.
References
1.
Donald Ross (surgeon). Available at: http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ross_
(surgeon)#Education. Accessed July 12, 2014
2.
Duran CG, Gunning AJ. A method for plac-
ing a total homologous aortic valve in the
subcoronary position.
Lancet
1962;
2
(7254):
488–489
3.
Ross DN. Homograft replacement of the
aortic valve.
Lancet
1962;
2
(7254): 487
4.
Ross DN, Radley-Smith R, Somerville J.
Pulmonary autograft replacement for severe
aortic valve disease.
Br Heart J
1969;
31
(6):
797–798
5.
Somerville J, Ross D. Long-term results of
complete correction with homograft recon-
struction in pulmonary outflow tract atresia.
Br Heart J
1972;
34
(1): 29–36
6.
Ross D, Jackson M, Davies J. The pulmo-
nary autograft – a permanent aortic valve.
Eur J Cardiothorac Surg
1992;
6
(3): 113–116,
discussion 117
7.
BBC. 1968: Surgeons conduct UK’s first
heart transplant. Available at:
.
bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/3/
newsid_ 4294000/4294423.stm. Accessed
July 12, 2014
Charles Yankah,
Charite Medical University Berlin and German
Heart Institute Berlin,Berlin,Germany
Previously published in
Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
2014. Permission granted by Thieme Publishers
NY, 333 Seventh Ave, NY 10001, USA.
Mr Donald Nixon Ross, DSc, FRCS
