I started working at Wrightington in 1973. As anaesthetic technician in Theatres I worked alongside George Britain who was John Charnley’s Anaesthetist they were joined at the hip those two.

 

Charnley would be very annoyed if George was not Anaesthetising for him. George was a very laid back man but he went well with John Charnley who was a very intense man. I remember one occasion; John was very meticulous about his work. If there was any excessive bleeding with a patient he would shout out to Dr Britain: -

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“George, he is bleeding”

 

Dr Britain would usually say”

 

“OK, his blood pressure is a little bit high. I will reduce his blood pressure.”

 

About ten minutes later

 

“George, he is still bleeding!”

 

George would say to me under his breath: -

 

“Is it surprising? He has just stuck a bloody knife in him!”

 

Working in the Anaesthetic room John Charnley had developed this First Prep routine. We both had long conversations over the preparation of a patient and how we could improve upon it. It was a little bit primitive at that time with the products we had available.

 

It consisted of: -

 

The perineum would be occluded. We would put a plastic sheet into the groin, up the chest and then wrapped behind the back. It would then be prepped wit Iodine – twice.

 

The plastic sheeting would come away because it was only an Opsite® spray that we used to secure it. We tried and tried to make it better and eventually we did get a Barrier Drape which stuck down properly and it improved things greatly. He was obsessive about sterility.

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One interesting story I remember about John Charnley was: -

 

Every Operating Session was filled with visitors from all over the World. He would be the perfect gentleman with them.

 

One morning, he was operating and a group of visitors appeared in Theatre from nowhere. I think they were either Chinese or Japanese.

 

John Charnley knew nothing about them. He asked around but no one knew anything about these visitors.

 

He was scrubbing up. The visitors were all around the enclosure.

 

He came into Theatre and asked me to go and speak to the Theatre manager at the time Ron Travis.

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Travis knew nothing about them.

 

As a result John Charnley asked them all to leave!

 

Charnley turned to me and said: -

 

“I have heard of Illegal Immigrants – but I have never heard of Illegal bloody Visitors!”

 

David Jones the Leg Holder, Brian Spencer the Plaster technician and I were known as the Three Musketeers!

 

John Charnley was a very pleasant man to work with. He was a very intense person obviously but if you had any suggestion he would take them on board and he would look into them to see if they would improve things.  He obviously had his moments like any Surgeon but you knew when to keep quiet with him. He knew what he wanted and heaven help the person responsible if it was not there.

 

John Charnley was very small in stature however I have seen men twice his size, on the morning they were going in to assist him absolutely shaking at the thought!

 

He did not tolerate fools. He expected the same standards from the other surgeons that he set for himself which in my opinion was right because he was the inventor.

 

There was a real family atmosphere at Wrightington. With all the foreign Surgeons, the Australians and the South African Surgeons there used to be Barbecues every weekend. It was a real social atmosphere. We had the accommodation on site at that time. Wrightington had its own pub in those days so that place was full every night.

 

At weekends that was the place for your weekend entertainment. Many marriages have been forged in that building!

 

On a personal note I was actually invited to attend a Buckingham Palace Garden Party because of my work at Wrightington. Professor Stanley was asked by Lord Shuttleworth to nominate someone who was a long serving member of staff and had worked with Sir John Charnley.

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We were actually presented to the Queen. The date is imprinted on my mind! It was July 10th 2007.

 

We spoke about the Queen Mother who had had her Hips done. The Queen said that she had had one done and had to have the other done because she had fallen and broken her Hip.

 

I met Lady Charnley on a few occasions but the most memorable was at the A.A.O.S. meeting in San Francisco in 1987. At the Conference dinner she gave a very emotional speech about him and how pleased she was still to be involved with the students.

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She remembered me from the Theatres at Wrightington when she used to visit.

 

I see Charnley as a man who shared his God given gift with World and I believe it helped alleviate pain in Many Thousands of Patients!

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