Professor Sir Arthur Colville Kennedy | |
|---|---|
 Arthur Kennedy | |
| Born | 23 October 1922 |
| Died | 30 December 2009 (aged 87) |
| Education | University of Glasgow School of Medicine. |
| Awards | CBE, FRSE |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Pediatrics, Nephrology |
| Institutions | University of Glasgow |
Arthur Colville Kennedy (23 October 1922 in Edinburgh, 30 December 2009 in Glasgow) was a Scottish nephrologist and pioneer of renal dialysis who was the Muirhead Chair of Medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1979. [1] [2] [3]
Arthur "Ack" Kennedy was born in Edinburgh, [2] the third son in a family of five sons to Thomas and Johanna Kennedy. [3] Kennedy attended Whitehill Secondary School in Glasgow before matriculating at the University of Glasgow School of Medicine. [3]
Kennedy married Agnes Kennedy née Taylor, known as Nancy Kennedy in 1947. Together the couple had two daughters as well as a granddaughter and two grandchildren. [4]
Kennedy completed his MB BCh in 1945. A year later he was conscripted into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve for two years [2] where he helped build a new runway on Barra in the Outer Hebrides (something he was particularly proud of). [3] Over the next several years Kennedy took a series of training posts within Glasgow and the West of Scotland where he began specialising in haematology. [3] By 1955 Kennedy had completed his Md thesis with the title "Defective Gas Transport Function of Stored Red Blood Cells: With Observations on the Oxygen Dissociation Curve in Anaemia". [5] In 1957, Kennedy joined the Professorial Medical Unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) as senior lecturer, working for the Muirhead Chair of Medicine (1945-1961) Leslie John Davis (1899-1980). [6]
By the late 1950's, Kennedy's focus began to change when he switched his specialism from haematology into nephrology. [7] Kennedy had noticed that none of the doctors at Glasgow were specialising in nephrology and in particular kidney dialysis, so decided to change his specialism. [7] In 1958, Arthur Henry Jacobs, a consultant urologist and head of department at GRI had received a generous bequest from a patient and he wished to use the money to set renal unit at the infirmary. [7] [1] Kennedy was selected by Jacobs to establish the new unit and decided to buy a dialysis machine. [1] Shortly after, Kennedy met with Frank Maudsley Parsons, a consultant clinical renal physiologist at Leeds General Infirmary [8] to learn how to operate a rotating-drum kidney dialysis machine that was being used in the hospital. [9]
In 1958, Kennedy began establishing an acute kidney failure unit in the basement of the urology department at GRI. By 1959, the unit was ready for the first artificial kidney machine which was ordered by Jacobs. It was similar to the one used by Parsons, made by French manufacturer Societe Usifroid. [7] [9]