Pioneering surgeon led way at Dunedin cardiac unit
Cardiac surgeon
HEART surgery was an emerging field when Patrick Molloy was a young doctor.
He was one of its pioneers and, after working amid the Northern Ireland Conflict, Prof Molloy returned to New Zealand to lead the South Island’s first cardiac surgery unit — in Dunedin.
The fact it was in Dunedin followed Prof Molloy’s recommendation after he was asked in 1970 to review New Zealand’s growing cardiac surgery needs.
The Dunedin unit served the needs of the lower South Island and beyond. The city had the only cardiac surgery unit in the South Island for more than 20 years — and this was often a point of contention — but Prof Molloy was always a staunch advocate.
He led the surgery team there for two decades.
Born in Auckland on August 3, 1928, to Reuben and Kathleen Molloy, Patrick John Molloy and his only sibling Joe were identical twins. They were among the first students of St Peter’s College in Auckland before Patrick went on to study at Auckland and Otago universities.
He was a house surgeon at Auckland Hospital when he met Julia Waldron, a nurse from St Bathans in Central Otago. In her autobiography, Wind in the Tussocks, Mrs Molloy said the pair initially developed a marvellous friendship and her husbandtobe was ‘‘enormous fun’’.
‘‘Apart from the fact he was dreadfully good looking, he had lovely manners and always made one feel cared for and safe.’’
He had still not met her family when they were engaged to be married. She was unable to get leave from work, so he met his future inlaws without her — lasting friendships were quickly established.
They were married in St Patrick’s Catholic Church at St Bathans on April 20, 1954.
Prof Molloy worked as a GP in Hamilton before moving to the United Kingdom in 1958 with his wife and the first four of what was to be 11 children. There, he started studies as a cardiac surgeon.
At Guy’s Hospital in London in 19601964, he worked alongside groundbreaking surgeons Sir Russell Brock and Donald Ross. The latter carried out the UK’s first heart transplant in 1968.
Prof Molloy took his first cardiothoracic consultancy in Liverpool in 1964.
In 1968, he and Julia moved with their now nine children to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to head up a new cardiothoracic surgical unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital. This was in the times of the conflict known as ‘‘the Troubles’’ and the older children recall the many occasions their father was called out in the middle of the night to help a victim of a shooting. It did not concern him which side of the Troubles the patient supported.
He developed a technique for treating chest wounds resulting from the large rubber bullets used by the army. His technique is still widely used in conflict zones.
In 1970, Prof Molloy started assessing New Zealand’s cardiac surgery needs. His report predicted growth in the rapidly developing field and he recommended a surgical unit be set up in Dunedin.
The Dunedin unit, with its close connections to the University of Otago Medical School, was established in 1973, and Prof Molloy and his family returned from Northern Ireland so he could take up the lead role. He also lectured at the medical school. Former students remember him as an engaging teacher.
He pioneered cardiac surgery on small babies that other surgeons had declined because of the high risk of mortality. Many infants were given a new lease of life.
This work was, in Prof Molloy’s quietly focused way, conducted without fanfare.
Retired cardiologist Dame Norma Restieaux worked with Prof Molloy for many years. He devoted his skill and energy to the establishment and direction of the cardiac unit in Dunedin, she said.
‘‘Pat had so many skills that we all saw demonstrated in his daily work. He was a skilled surgeon, a caring person and showed empathy to all.
‘‘We frequently needed to rely on him in sometimes very difficult situations.’’
PROF MOLLOY is also remembered in the medical world for his ethical and gentlemanly demeanour around staff and patients.
One of those patients had dreamed of becoming an airline pilot but was diagnosed as a young boy with a coarctation of the aorta and associated bicuspid aortic valve. In the 1970s and ’80s, a career as a pilot would be difficult for him to achieve.
Prof Molloy repaired the 16yearold’s aorta and he went on to achieve his dream.
Many patients wrote letters to thank the surgeon.
He was worried, however, about the implications of a Christchurch cardiac surgery unit possibly starting up. Slashing Dunedin’s workload would be ‘‘disastrous’’, he told a 1977 national review led by Sir Keith Ross. A significant reduction in cases risked turning the Dunedin unit into a ‘‘completely inefficient nonentity’’.
Sir Keith countered with eloquence of his own, mentioning that the Dunedin development had taken place ‘‘away from the main centre of the population of the South Island’’ and that it was planned when cardiac surgery was still far from achieving wide acceptance.
He did, however, concede the Dunedin unit’s link with Tahiti, fostered by Prof Molloy, was beneficial and said the city had time to adapt to the inevitability of a Christchurch facility starting. He predicted in 1977 that this could occur within five years.
Christchurch opened its cardiothoracic surgery unit in 1997.
Prof Molloy retired from surgery in 1993 and became an emeritus professor the next year. His last role at Dunedin Hospital was as curator of the surgical museum. He remained a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
He was a keen golfer and played at least weekly throughout his professional career. In Dunedin, this was at Otago Golf Club, where he played with his medical friends of many years. Retired Dunedin GP Wayne Petch knew him since their student days and described him as ‘‘considerate, careful and compassionate’’— and a good, average golfer.
‘‘He was a surgeon in the days where cardiac activities were more fraught with hazard than they are these days.’’
He had a fascination with geology and his children recall happy holidays scrambling over rocks to find fish fossils high in the Welsh mountains and pieces of quartz in the coldest of Central Otago rivers.
He sometimes stopped at car crashes to offer his help. This was firmly rejected on one occasion at Invercargill. It was the Goodbye Pork Pie film set.
The Molloys were married for 63 years and, as well as their 11 children, they absorbed into their family a young woman who lived next door in the late 1970s and a Cambodian refugee in the early ’80s. Julia Molloy died in 2017.
Prof Molloy’s many friends knew him as a person who could be relied on in difficult times, and as a man of great intelligence, with a dry wit.
His family remember him as an everpresent dad and granddad who listened with an open mind and was available in his quiet way through difficult and good times.
Prof Molloy died on May 19, aged 91, at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Brockville, where he received great care.
He is survived by his children, Prudence Hinchey, Brigid Cook, Adrienne Molloy, KatherineMary Molloy, Alison Molloy, Felicity Molloy, Ruth Molloy, Veronica Molloy, Charlotte Molloy, James Molloy and Hannah Molloy, Phirum Keo and Kirsty MacMillan, their partners, and his 37 grandchildren and 36 greatgrandchildren.
— Grant Miller, Gerard Wilkins, Richard Bunton and
Molloy family members