Conor O'Malley Born: May 21st, 1930 Died: November 30th, 2012Dr Conor O'Malley, who has died aged 82, was an eye surgeon and inventor. He is best known for ground-breaking innovations for use in vitreous surgery which he developed between 1962 and 1975 and which helped saved the sight of many thousands of people.
With Ralph Heinz and Dr Maurice Tripp, he invented the Ocutome patented system of instruments for introcular microsurgery. Ocutome vitreous cutter technology and teaching remain in worldwide use to this day and have proven to be highly effective in the battle against sight loss.
Equipment developed by Dr O’Malley first came into use in Ireland at the Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Cork, in 1974.
His brother Patrick, also an eye surgeon, described Dr O’Malley’s invention as a major advance in surgery. “His main contribution was recognising that many tiny incisions were far less traumatic than one or two large ones. This is the basis of the global use of minimally invasive surgery.”
Born in Galway in 1930, he was the third of five children of Conor O’Malley, an eye and ear, nose and throat specialist, and his wife, Sarah (Sal) Joyce, an anaesthetist.
His father came from a family of sheep farmers in the Maam Valley, Connemara, and his mother was from nearby Leenane. They were both consultants attached to the Central Hospital in Galway, now Galway University Hospital.
Christened Cathal Conor, he was known as Cathal growing up in Barna, Co Galway. He adopted Conor as his name in the US. Educated by the Jesuits at Coláiste Iognáid, Galway, he studied medicine at University College Galway.
He graduated in 1956, with qualifications in medicine, obstetrics and surgery. He had internships in Galway, Liverpool and Toledo.
Before his ophthalmology residency at UCLA Medical Center, he had a fellowship in ophthalmic pathology at the Doheny Eye Institute, Los Angeles. He became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1972.
For 38 years, while in private practice at the Eye Medical Clinic of Santa Clara Valley, he specialised in diseases of the vitreous and retina. He also served on the medical staff at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose.
An ophthalmology consultant to the US army at Fort Ord between 1965 and 1975, he was assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco for 14 years.
In 1978 he financed a three-month medical mission to Karachi, Pakistan, to teach retinal surgery to physicians at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Institute and at the Mobile Eye Service. He was accompanied by his six-member family, another surgeon, a nurse and a surgical photographer.
His personal donations to this project, together with those of several medical companies, totalled 23 crates of surgical equipment and medicinal supplies.
He was well-known in Willow Glen, San Jose, where he lived for 50 years. His pursuits included travelling, cycling and bird-watching. Fluent in Irish, Spanish and French, he acknowledged with a smile that he also spoke English “reasonably well”.
After he retired, he developed and patented an ecologically friendly toilet that uses 50 per cent less water than a conventional low-flow toilet.
His wife Mary Ellis Refalo died in 2011. His son Peter and daughters Grace, Siobhán and Bronwyn survive him. He is also survived by his five grandchildren, his brother Patrick and sisters Ann and Joan. His sister Grace died in October.