Conal Wilmot: Conal Wilmot, who has died aged 71, was a pioneer in the treatment and study of spinal-cord and head injuries. A member of the team that established the National Rehabilitation Hospital in the 1960s, he helped thousands of paraplegics and quadriplegics, both in Ireland and the United States, to integrate into mainstream life.
A committed and eloquent advocate on behalf of people with disabilities, he was a founding member of the Irish Wheelchair Association and an officer of the Spina Bifida Association of Ireland.
The most rewarding aspect of his work was to see patients return to everyday life. Due to the efforts of Conal Wilmot and others in his field, paraplegics are, for the most part, able to get jobs and live independently.
Quadriplegics, however, face greater difficulties but can cope with the help of at-home care. And public awareness of the needs of people with disabilities has grown, with the result that problems of access and mobility are being overcome.
Born on May 5th, 1933, in Wexford, he was one of the four children of Séamus B. Wilmot and his wife, Mary Agnes (née Scanlon). His father was then CEO of Wexford Vocational Education Committee and, on his appointment as Galway town clerk, the family moved west, finally settling in Dublin in 1938 when he was appointed assistant registrar of the National University of Ireland.
A playwright and short-story writer, Séamus Wilmot was best known for Mise Méara, which was published in translation as And So Began.
Living in the family home at Williamstown, Co Dublin, Conal attended Willow Park School and Blackrock College. A bright student, he also impressed as a schools rugby player.
Playing at wing forward, he won junior and senior cup medals and was selected for Leinster. He played cricket and was a useful boxer as well.
In 1951 he enrolled at University College Dublin to study medicine. Graduating in 1958, he did his residency at the Mater Hospital, Dublin. He was for two years registrar in rehabilitation medicine and surgery at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire, which has one of the finest spinal injuries and reconstructive surgery centres in the world.
In 1962 he was appointed assistant medical officer at what was then known as the National Medical Rehabilitation Centre in Dún Laoghaire.
Using the skills acquired at Stoke Mandeville, he helped to set up the first rehabilitation service in Ireland specialising in the treatment of spinal cord injury, head injury and spinal bifida patients. The service also co-ordinated the transfer by helicopter of patients with major spinal injuries from all over Ireland in conjunction with the Air Corps.
In 1976 he was recruited by Stanford University to head the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre at San Jose, California. He combined his work at the centre with lecturing in the university school of medicine. In addition, he held visiting professorships in several US universities and addressed conferences in the US, Canada, and Ireland.
He worked on many major research projects and was a contributor to a wide range of medical books and journals. He was a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
His other interests included playing golf (he was a former member of the Elm Park club), watching American football and travel. A naturalised American citizen since 1986, he retained close links with family and friends in Ireland. He retired in 1994 to Santa Cruz.
A devoted husband and father, he is survived by his wife, Von (née Lillis), daughters, Geraldine, Fiona and Helen, sons, Séamus and Conal, brothers, Ronan and Brendan, and sister, Ann.
Conal Brian Wilmot: born May 5th, 1933; died September 14th, 2004