My father, Norman Campbell, who has died aged 79, was among the leading cardiologists of his generation in Britain and Ireland. His intelligence and excellent clinical skills made him a highly respected physician. He described his work as “on occasion fascinating, at times difficult and demanding, sometimes with moments of near terror”.
His whole career, save a formative period in the US, was spent at the Royal Victoria hospital (the “Royal”) in Belfast. His generation of health professionals cemented the city’s status as a world-leading centre of cardiac care and rehabilitation.
Norman was proud to serve as clinical director in the 1990s, and to mentor and support his colleagues. They valued his commitment to patient-centred medicine and to innovation, and additionally his ability to diffuse tension. He had a long interest in cardiac imaging and non-invasive cardiology, and introduced trans-oesophageal echo-cardiography to the Royal.
He was born in Belfast, five months after his father Archibald’s death on active service during the second world war. He grew up in a happy blended family with his mother, Margaret (nee Burns), and his aunt, uncle and cousins, and went to school at Campbell college, where he honed a love of biology, words, music, the outdoors and team sports, and a gift for friendship.
In 1963 Norman followed his parents and other family members into the medical school at Queen’s University, Belfast. At Queen’s he met Jennifer Griffith. They married in 1970, when Norman was a houseman at the Royal, and began life together in a tower block near the Falls Road, during the early years of the Troubles.
Norman chose to be a cardiologist largely to work with Professor Frank Pantridge, inventor of the portable defibrillator, and an impressive group of younger professionals. Junior doctors and nurses, including Norman, went out in the world’s first purpose-built cardiac ambulance, to treat those suffering an arrest, wherever the incident occurred. This approach, known as the “the Belfast protocol”, has saved countless lives around the world.
As a person, Norman was notable for his generosity and wry humour. He enjoyed people, and valued the networks and friendships he had with cardiologists across the world. He was honoured to serve as president of the Irish Cardiac Society in 1994-95, and to belong to the Corrigan Club, which promoted friendship between physicians on the island of Ireland.
Alzheimer’s disease made the last decade of his life increasingly challenging. He is survived by Jennifer, and their three children – Lucy, Alastair and me – and five grandchildren, Isobel, Edward, Connor, Chloé and Ellie.
