Citation for Dr. John Robert Lehane
In 1984, John Robert Lehane and Ronald Sidney Cormack , at this time anesthetists at the Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, United Kingdom, published a simple classification system for grading direct laryngoscopy in Anaesthesia . Their landmark contribution to clinical anesthesia soon achieved general acceptance and promoted further improvements. Since the publication the two names have become linked like the two sides of a coin and it is difficult to mention one without mentioning the other. Internet journal of airway management in December 2009 wrote a special piece to celebrate the 25 years of Cormack and Lehane classification. Such is the significance of their work that it is impossible to read or write a chapter on airway management without referring to these two famous names. Lehane’s published work is amongst the most read and quoted papers in the world and Dr.Lehane with Dr.Cormack are amongst the most famous names in anaesthesia.
John Lehane was born in 1945 and was educated in Merseyside. He moved to Northwick Park in mid seventies. It was here he met Cormack and together worked on a system of teaching students intubation in Obstetric patients. This resulted in their famous classification of the laryngeal view into the four grades.
A highly respected teacher and Consultant anaesthetist Dr.Lehane moved to Oxford where he retired after a long illustrious career.
For the immense contribution to the field of anaesthesia patient safety and airway management, DAS is delighted to award the Macewen medal to John Robert Lehane.
Dr Ravi Dravid
