A large trolley was wheeled around the wards, which had the monitoring apparatus, the ECG, the blood gas analysis and so on, and much recording apparatus. Ron and I – I had the privilege of working with him then – were deemed the ‘death watch beetles’, because unfortunately we weren’t always successful. Dr Margaret Branthwaite, History of British Intensive Care, c.1950–c.2000

Dr Margaret Branthwaite MA FRCP (b. 1935) qualified at Cambridge. Her involvement with intensive care started at the Brompton Hospital in 1963, continued on the surgical unit at St Thomas’s Hospital for a year during which she had contact with Dr Bradley who invited her on to the medical unit. Appointed consultant cardiothoracic anaesthetist in intensive care and respiratory medicine at the Brompton Hospital, London (1961–91), she was consultant physician there from 1979 and directed adult intensive care and the respiratory support services, Royal Brompton Hospital, London. She took an MA in medical ethics and law, King’s College London in 1989 and retrained as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in 1993.