Jane Somerville

Jane Somerville (née Platnauer; 24 January 1933) is a British emeritus professor of cardiology at Imperial College, London, who is best known for defining the concept and subspecialty of grown ups with congenital heart disease (GUCH) and being chosen as the physician involved with Britain's first heart transplantation by Donald Ross in 1968.

Somerville was educated first at a boys preparatory school in North Wales, then Queen's College, London, and later at Guy's Hospital Medical School. Initially drawn to surgery, she chose to pursue a career in cardiology at the National Heart Hospital, Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street and later at the Brompton Hospital.

Her work led to the opening of the world's first dedicated ward for children and adolescents with congenital heart disease, the first World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology in London, and a GUCH charity which was later renamed "The Somerville Foundation" in her honour. The medical professionals who she trained and who have come to celebrate and follow her are known as "Unicorns".

Early life and education Jane Somerville was born in Edwardes Square, Kensington, London, to Joseph Bertram Platnauer, who was a theatre critic for the Tatler magazine Her early childhood was spent under the guidance of a strict Irish governess at the family residence in Park Square which later became the site for The Prince's Trust.

During the Second World War and The Blitz, when children were ordered out of London, Somerville was sent to a boys preparatory school in the Welsh village of Portmeirion. She remained there for three years, being only one of six girls among 70 boys. Somerville initially aimed for a career in heart surgery and worked for heart surgery pioneer Sir Russell Brock. She recognised her own lack of dexterity and later recounted "but I was no good because my hands were not connected to my head" This new group of survivors had new medical problems and some soon required repeat operations, challenging the cardiologists of the time. They co-authored a number of innovative articles, including in 1966, the first report of the use of a homograft aortic valve to repair pulmonary atresia.

Later medical career Paul Wood ward In 1975, Somerville, "always feisty and prepared for battle", her ex-trainees who gather at the World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology every year to celebrate her life and work. In explaining the "Unicorns", Somerville answered;

I try to teach my fellows that they have to have imagination. You have to be able to diagnose a disease that you have never seen, or perhaps even read about, and you have to combine your memory with it. That's why my trainees are called unicorns, because I used to tell them that there's this imaginary animal that nobody had ever seen but if you saw one in the ward, you’d recognize it. Without the ability to imagine, I’m not sure you would quite know what was going on.

Brompton Hospital The Brompton Hospital incorporated the National Heart Hospital in 1989, however the adolescent ward was not included in the transition. Somerville thereafter worked on re-establishing one, which was later renamed the Jane Somerville GUCH Unit in 1996. A "self-proclaimed trouble maker", she shared the event at Chicago with Eugene Braunwald, Valentín Fuster, Antonio Colombo and Magdi Yacoub, when she spoke about her 50 years with heart surgeons.

She is the second woman, after Helen Taussig, to enter the Paediatric Cardiology Hall of Fame.

Personal life

In 1957, Platnauer married Walter Somerville, who she met in the late 1940s, when she was age 16 and he was staying next door. Walter died in 2005.

Her hobbies include collecting antiques, roof gardening and opera.

In 2013 Somerville was a guest on the BBC's Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young.

Selected publications