Obituary from The Independent 15 March 2001:
Kenneth Charles Easton, medical practitioner: born Thornton Heath, Surrey 3 April 1924; co-founder, Road Accident After Care Scheme of the North Riding of Yorkshire 1967; Founding Chairman, British Association of Immediate Care Schemes 1977-83; OBE 1974; married 1948 Janet Young (one son, four daughters); died Northallerton, North Yorkshire 10 February 2001. At first light one summer morning in 1965, a Yorkshire doctor was called to a road accident on the A1 near Catterick. A lorry had run into the back of another. The cab was crushed and it was impossible to get to the driver and his passenger. Rescuers stood by for an hour whilst equipment was brought from a nearby garage; but during that time the injured driver suffered great pain and his passenger bled quietly to death from an amputated leg. Since coming to practise in Catterick in 1950, Dr Kenneth Easton had attended more than 2,000 accidents on this dangerous stretch of road, which lay inconveniently distant from the nearest hospitals in Darlington and Northallerton. Easton was convinced that a new approach in dealing with victims on site was necessary. He determined, therefore, to campaign for better co-ordination between the emergency services, and for advanced training for all concerned, both to save lives on the spot and to improve the chances of survival of those seriously injured. In 1967, with the support of local colleagues, he set up the Road Accident After Care Scheme, covering a thousand square miles and using the voluntary services of 34 doctors. The ambulance brigades stepped up their training; police and fire services developed their co-operative roles; funding to help with equipment and support was raised from local charities and events. Schemes were soon established in other parts of the country. The principles of immediate care were, of course, applicable to other medical crises besides those on the roads. A whole new subject of medical research and practice opened up. Although seen as important and innovative by some (especially those at the grass roots), the new developments were not at first recognised by the medical profession, and it was next to impossible to get resources from Government. Over the next 10 years, Easton sought out kindred spirits, and together they lectured, lobbied and harangued anyone and everyone who could be brought on side. In 1972, with a Nuffield Fellowship, he undertook a gruelling lecture tour through Asia and Australia - one of many such trips. His lectures were an enormous success, but he never passed up an opportunity to learn from other colleagues, or to experience at first hand the problems in other countries. By 1977, opinion began to swing in favour of the new approaches to immediate medical care as they were backed by rigorous scientific evaluation. The British Association of Immediate Care Schemes (Basics) was founded with the support of the Royal College of General Practitioners and with Easton as its first chairman. Immediate care is now established as a regular part of medical education; there is a specialist international peer-reviewed journal for this branch of medicine, Pre-hospital Immediate Care; and Basics has proved a dynamic and innovative organisation, testimony to the grit and drive of the pioneers in the field. Ken Easton was born in Thornton Heath, Surrey, in 1924, and won a scholarship to Whitgift School, Croydon. He studied medicine at King's College London and at Westminster Hospital, before being called up in 1945. With a group of other senior medical students, Easton was sent to the liberation of Belsen, an experience that marked his whole life - and confirmed his vocation. After his medical finals, he completed his National Service with the RAF at Catterick, and decided to stay in the area and practise as a GP. He lived with his wife, Janet, in Catterick from 1950 until the end of his life. Easton received public recognition in many forms, but he was quick to point out that whatever he had achieved had depended on team work and on the efforts of others. He was, in essence, a remarkable physician with a powerful vocation to heal. What gave him the greatest satisfaction were the salutations of his patients and old friends in the village or conveyed by letter and telephone across the world. These encounters meant as much to him as any conventional honour.
Many thanks to Joan Clarke for supplying this information |