Farewell Jim, from friends in medicine
Colleagues pay heartfelt tributes on memorial website for obstetrician
A NEW website has been set up for Jim Dornan’s family in memory of the obstetrician.
It was created for his widow Samina by staff at Kings College Hospital in both Dubai and London after the 73-year-old Co Down man lost his battle with Covid-19 on March 15.
The site has the backing of Jim’s daughters Liesa and Jessica and son Jamie, the Hollywood movie star, and will provide a forum for “friends, colleagues and the countless lives of those Jim touched” to express messages of condolence to the internationally respected medic.
There has been a global outpouring of grief since the Dubai-based retired consultant gynaecologist died of complications surrounding the virus, despite having received a second dose of the Pfizer-biontech vaccine in January.
His wife, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the hospital where Jim passed away, told the Belfast Telegraph her husband’s death was yet another example of what a dreadful disease Covid-19 was.
Samina said she believes Covid-19 is “the world war”.
“Not the other World Wars — this is the world war because human beings are affected by it in every corner of the world,” said Pakistan-born Samina.
“There are a lot of wounded and dead soldiers and no one should underestimate it.
“Young old, well, unwell... listen to the medics.”
And although vaccines do not offer anybody total protection against the virus, she urged everyone to get the jab.
“Covid-19 is a terrible disease,” said Dr Samina.
“Do not take this virus lightly. It does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter if you’re old or young, vaccinated or not.
“Even if you have been vaccinated, wear a mask. Everyone must be vigilant.”
Dedications on the website illustrate what “an inspiration in life Jim was both personally, as a father and a husband, and professionally, as an internationally respected and renowned expert in Obstetrics and Gynaecology”. A friend, Arthur Mcmurray, posted that he first met Jim in 1970 when they were both medical students. He added: “We became friends, housemates and worldwide travellers. I will miss him terribly. It has been my privilege to have had him as a friend.”
Another, Des Compton, wrote: “Thank you for your friendship over 54 years. You never changed... You always said Desi we have to move on. You don’t know how difficult that is now.”
Describing Jim and Samina “like family”, his colleague Dr Sana Kausar said: “He was always kind, happy, witty and generous, and lived life in a fabulous way. I will remember Jim with nothing but fondness. What a true friend for womankind!”
Samina and Jim met in 1999, a year after the death of his first wife Lorna from pancreatic cancer, and married in May 2002.
She shared with this newspaper a letter from one of her late husband’s students, whose work Prof Dornan was still mentoring just days before he died.
Zainab Fadhul, from RCSI Bahrain, said she wanted to offer condolences and to tell Samina “that he loved you so much and always spoke highly of you”.
“I only knew him for the past year but we had many conversations and he was always downto-earth, funny, humble, genuine and witty,” she told Samina.
“We lost a wonderful man but his legacy remains in all of you.”
Mr Dornan, who was an advocate of women’s reproductive rights in Northern Ireland for over four decades, entered hospital for routine knee surgery on February 24.
His oxygen saturation level dropped three days later and doctors diagnosed a pulmonary embolism and pneumonia.
He then tested positive for Covid-19, despite obtaining a negative result two days before his surgery.
He was put on a ventilator as his condition deteriorated and later suffered a fatal heart attack.
An international lecturer, he held various senior position with Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster.
As senior vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, he helped develop global health initiatives, including the establishment of an emergency obstetrician that provides lifesaving skills for medics, midwives and nurses in nations with scarce resources.
Prof Dornan moved to Dubai in 2019 when his wife was appointed head of the maternal foetal medicine department at King’s College Hospital.
Meanwhile, he became head of department at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland in Bahrain.
Shortly after Mr Dornan’s death Samina told the Belfast Telegraph that she was “grieving and utterly broken”.
To leave a message visit https://rememberingjimdornan.com/
‘It was my privilege to have had him asa friend’