About Dermot
Former Consultant Anaesthetist at RIE
Dermot trained and worked in RIE as Consultant Anaesthetist from 1972. He used to work, among other places, in the operating theatre adjacent to the ward 20 – currently level 4 of the building. These portraits are taken in the study space on level 4, close to where the operating theatre used to be.
The portraits capture Dermot telling – and showing – the route that he walked countless times transporting patients from one department to another. Dermot vividly remembers the route to this day.
“The Royal ‘Just Grew’. New bits of building were constantly added to original architecture, wards changed their specialist interests, ICUs were added. Getting around, especially with a patient, was easier if you knew the short cuts and which lifts worked. A medical student who was one of the last training in the Old RIE said: ‘I’ll miss looking after patients in Hogwarts’…
A key connecting corridor was a curved one known as ‘The Duodenum’. Named after the shape of a bit of bowel, it connected the ‘Surgical’ side of hospital with the ‘Medical’ side. Indoors it sloped down quite significantly which could allow a heavily loaded trolley to pick up speed quickly! The alternative outdoor route was flatter but subject to wind and rain…
In the picture I’m describing transfer of a head injured patient from the Emergency Department to CT scanner and then Neurosurgical ICU. It would involve 9 Left turns, 7 Right turns, and lifts 1 floor down and 4 floors up.
And Down and Up the Duodenum!”
Dermot McKeown
Written for Borne by the Walls series
