Dr John Drumm:DR JOHN Drumm, who died suddenly in July, gained a place in medical history by being the first to use ultrasound to observe blood flow in the umbilical artery. With his collaborator, Dr Dermot FitzGerald, he published a key paper in the British Medical Journalin December 1977.
Dr Drumm’s subsequent work, with Dr Bernard Stuart at the Coombe hospital, established the role of ultrasound in observing blood flow in high-risk pregnancies. This test is now used world-wide to predict imminent foetal death, and as a result thousands of stillbirths have been prevented.
John Drumm grew up in Birr, where his father was a general practitioner. After attending Blackrock College, he studied medicine at UCD, graduating in 1966. Following his internship at the Mater hospital and early training in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Coombe hospital, he pursued post-graduate training in obstetrics and gynaecology in Birmingham before returning to the Coombe as assistant master in 1972.
Dr Drumm was among the first obstetricians in Ireland to use ultrasound. He was trained in this subspeciality by the inventor of obstetric ultrasound, the late Sir Ian Donald. After setting up the ultrasound department at the Coombe hospital, he was appointed consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist in 1976.
He served as master of the Coombe from 1985 to 1992. He had huge ambitions for the hospital, but these were dealt a cruel blow by the financial stringencies of the mid-1980s. His address to the entire hospital staff outlining the financial situation remains legendary. He promised to save jobs wherever possible.
During his mastership, he negotiated a closer relationship between the Coombe hospital and the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Trinity College Dublin. At the conclusion of these negotiations, he was offered a clinical professorship with TCD. It is characteristic of the lack of self-interest that marked his mastership that he declined this offer.
Following his mastership, he worked as consultant gynaecologist at the Meath hospital and later at Tallaght hospital, while continuing his duties at the Coombe.
He retired in 2008, but continued to serve on the board of the Coombe hospital up to his death.
John Drumm had a number of personal attributes which made him ideally suited to his chosen speciality. He had great manual dexterity, a strong work ethic and immense determination, which served his patients well, especially during compromised or difficult pregnancies. He was a team leader who respected the work of other health professionals, particularly valuing the work of midwives and operating theatre nurses.
Although committed to reducing the incidence of stillbirth and greeting any adverse outcome with immense compassion for the bereaved family, he was concerned about the rising incidence of Caesarean section in Ireland. His last lecture at the Coombe, the John Ringland oration in 2009, was a critical analysis of the rising rate of Caesarean sections.
He is mourned by obstetricians whom he mentored during their training, by midwives with whom he worked and by many patients.
He is survived by his wife Eileen, his children Claire, Paul, Michael, David, Jennifer, Peter and Sarah, his brother Peter, sisters Anne, Margaret and Mary, and also by Nancy and grandchildren.
Dr John Drumm: born August 12th, 1942; died July 23rd, 2010.