Heart pioneer led world from Auckland

Brian Barratt-Boyes

"When you needed him, he was there," says a former patient of the late Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes.


The heart surgeon gave Gordon McShean a new lease on life when other doctors told him he had only three months to live.

Sir Brian died yesterday in Cleveland from complications from a heart operation performed two weeks ago to replace two valves. He was 82.

He will be remembered as a pioneer in the field, introducing techniques that are now commonplace around the world.

He performed the country's first cardiopulmonary bypass in 1958, and in 1962, introduced aortic heart valve replacement, a technique he and his team at Greenlane Hospital perfected over many years. Their results would become the world standard.

It was a valve transplant that led to a meeting between Mr McShean and Sir Brian. Mr McShean had a weak heart from an infection after contracting rheumatic fever as a 14-year-old. In 1966, aged 29, he was told he had only three months to live.

Then living in the United States, he had read of Sir Brian's breakthrough work while working at California's Stanford University.

He wrote to him and was invited to Auckland.

"It was hot and sticky. I was on my own, as I had to leave my wife in California. He was really the first New Zealand guy I spoke to other than the ladies at the airport."

Mr McShean, now 69, found Sir Brian encouraging and warm.

"He was the professional who had his standards and his routines, and you followed them."

Sir Brian would save his life twice more, in 1972 and 1984, by which time he had moved to New Zealand.

The next meetings were more formal. "These times there was nothing social about them at all, it was all professional. See you in hospital, that kind of thing.

"That didn't bother me at all. In some ways that was preferable, possibly, because you don't particularly want the person who's gonna cut your chest open to be too emotionally involved with you, do you?"

Dr Ken Graham was a trainee surgeon in 1958 when he first met Sir Brian. His mentor was kindly, but "slightly demanding".

"You can't achieve the things that he has achieved in his lifetime by being completely relaxed."

In 1969, the surgeon found a new way to save babies born with congenital heart defects.

Professor Harvey White, a longtime friend and colleague, said Sir Brian used to personally reply to the children's thank-you letters.

He said Sir Brian had become very family-oriented after retirement in 1989, recalling his 80th birthday celebrations at his Waiwera home surrounded by his grandchildren.

Sir Brian was known for his outspokenness towards what he saw as the deterioration of the public health service through Government cost-cutting. He had heart problems himself and had undergone four operations since 1974.

The first three were performed in Auckland by former colleague Dr Alan Kerr.

Dr Kerr said Sir Brian's greatest legacy was the young surgeons - particularly in paediatric surgery - he trained and were now saving lives all over the world.

His book Cardiac Surgery, co-written with John Kirklin, is now the standard textbook in the field. He was knighted in 1971.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Sir Brian left an immense legacy.

"He was recognised throughout the world as one of the greatest physicians of the twentieth century."

Sir Brian is survived by his wife, Lady Sara, and five sons.


Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes

1958: Performed NZ's first cardiopulmonary bypass.

1962: Introduced aortic valve replacement.

1969: Pioneered the now standard procedure of lowering the body temperature of babies during heart surgery.

1971: Knighted for outstanding services to medicine.

1985: Co-wrote textbook that is now the standard reference book in the field.

1989: Retired from surgical practice.