William Liley

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Sir Albert William Liley KCMG, DSc Vict PhD ANU MBChB BMedSc Otago Dip Obs FRSNZ FACOG FRCOG (12 March 1929 - 1983), known as Sir William, was a New Zealand surgeon, who worked primarily on techniques to improve the health of fetuses in utero.

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[edit] Education and career

Sir William graduated from Otago Medical School at the University of Otago in Dunedin, in 1954. He was awarded fellowships with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and was appointed to the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, although he was an atheist. He was also a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He was knighted (KCMG) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.

Sir William became known for his technique for intrauterine blood transfusions for Rh-affected fetuses. In developing and performing intrauterine transfusions to save fetuses that were too young to survive extrauterine life, Sir William became the first medical practitioner to treat the fetus as a patient in his or her own right. Prior to Sir William's development of the intrauterine transfusion, the gestating uterus was regarded as inviolate. Many developments in prenatal treatment have ensued since Sir William performed the first successful intrauterine transfusion in 1963.

[edit] Suicide

Sir William committed suicide in 1983.

Sir William is survived by his wife, five natural children and one adopted child. He first met his wife, Dr. Margaret, Lady Liley (formerly Margaret Hunt) when they were at medical school together. They married in 1953.

[edit] Liley Medal

Since 2004 the Health Research Council of New Zealand has annually awarded the Liley Medal in recognition of an outstanding contribution to medical research.[1]

[edit] Bibliography

  • "Sir Albert William Liley" in Yearbook of the Royal Society of New Zealand: 1997:2:34-41.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Liley Medal for Health Research