Professor Helen Carty

Leading paediatric radiologist who was an expert in interpreting X-rays for child abuse cases

PROFESSOR HELEN CARTY, who has died aged 72, was a paediatric radiologist, a leading figure in the development of specialist radiological services for children and a world expert in the interpretation of bone X-rays in children who might have been abused.

In 1975 Helen Carty arrived at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, to join Connie Davies, the sole consultant appointment in an X-ray department which served one of Europe’s largest children’s hospitals. At the time the only investigations she had at her disposal were plain X-rays.

Over the next 30 years she applied new imaging techniques which were largely developed for adults but which were to prove equally useful for babies and children. Ultrasound, CT and MRI scanning and radionuclide imaging are now part of standard practice in all large hospitals which care for children.

When the hospital required a CT scanner Helen Carty initiated an appeal to buy one (spending much of her own free time fundraising) which raised more than £1.2 million. She had previously relied on sending children across the city to the adult hospital where there was a CT scanner run by her husband Austin.

During the course of her career it became recognised that the abuse of children was often revealed in bone fractures. Sometimes these are subtle and the children have no history of trauma. She became an expert in this area and was much sought for her opinion in contentious court cases, for which she meticulously investigated alternative theories about the cause of fractures.

One such theory was that “brittle bone disease” was the cause. Helen Carty was instrumental in proving that it was a theory with no substance. Barristers found her a formidable witness.

Many of today’s imaging techniques are potentially very distressing for young children but she developed a department and staff which catered for the special needs of children and it was rare to need the use of sedation or anaesthesia to get good images.

She was equally considerate of the staff and not only reported on the X-rays obtained but was also very much involved in the hospital clinical team and would often be seen on the wards talking to parents and children.

Helen Carty was an excellent and highly organised medical administrator and in 1992 she was appointed clinical director of support services for the hospital, which included pathology. At the inquiry into children’s heart surgery at Bristol in 1998 it was mentioned that hearts which had been removed at autopsy were often retained for further research. One of the witnesses cited Alder Hey as somewhere that had been involved in this practice.

Such a collection of hearts was identified in Liverpool and subsequent investigation revealed that the parents of the babies involved had not been aware of the practice and had not given permission. It also transpired that a pathologist at Alder Hey had vastly increased the amount of tissues stored. This led to a public outcry from distressed relatives and politicians who responded by setting up an inquiry.

Its report ran to more than 500 pages and many of the senior clinicians in the hospital were severely criticised. The report also contained detailed statements from parents who felt they had been deceived and lied to, leading to newspaper headlines such as “ghoulish malpractice” and “the return of the body snatchers”. Politicians insisted that every doctor named in the report be referred to the General Medical Council. This included Helen Carty and 50 others. All bar two were cleared of any wrongdoing without a hearing. Only the pathologist was found guilty.

This episode caused huge distress to the staff at Alder Hey and Helen Carty was a key figure in trying to maintain morale and keep the hospital working.

Helen Carty, one of seven siblings, was born on May 12 1944 at Dungarvan, in rural Ireland, a town which in the early 1800s became famous when excavations found a cache of mammoth elephant bones buried some 40,000 years previously.

Her father was a successful merchant but after he developed spinal tuberculosis his firm went bankrupt and he went off to England to find work while the rest of the family moved to Dublin. Helen’s mother, who had previously not worked, opened a small restaurant near the railway terminus for Belfast and made sufficient money to keep the family afloat.

Helen was educated at St Mary’s College, Co Wicklow, and played tennis for Ireland as a schoolgirl. She went on to study Medicine at University College Dublin, graduating in 1967 with prizes in surgery, obstetrics and medicine.

Following early training as a physician she switched to radiology and completed her training at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. She and her husband Austin, also a radiologist, obtained consultant posts in Liverpool and in 1977 she became Director of radiological services at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, a post she held until her retirement in 2004. In 1996 she was made a professor by the University of Liverpool.

Helen Carty and her husband brought up their three children in their large Victorian house in Cressington Park, Liverpool. They loved to entertain (the house had a huge wine cellar) and on one occasion had 32 people staying in the house for the Grand National weekend. One visitor from Aberdeen brought 24 blue duck eggs with him so guests the following morning were offered the choice of not only eggs, but white or blue.

Following retirement Helen Carty became, in 2005, a Deputy Lieutenant and then for a year in 2011 was the High Sheriff of Merseyside. This necessitated the wearing of hats which she rather hated but turned into an art form, for which she is fondly remembered.

She was involved in many aspects of civic life and met members of the Royal family on several occasions. On one visit, at a lunch in the Floral Pavilion at New Brighton, she was observed having a particularly animated conversation with the Duke of Edinburgh; they were discussing their mutual interest in ornithology. She was also an accomplished wood-turner.

Having come from horse racing country in Ireland she always attended the Grand National and on most occasions was able to tip the winner. Shortly before her death she had a £10 each way bet on One for Arthur and the envelope with the £85 winnings was later found in her handbag, unspent. She was also a passionate Liverpool Football club supporter.

Helen Carty co-edited the standard textbook of paediatric radiology, Imaging Children, first published in 1995. This is recognised throughout Europe as the standard authority on the subject.

She was a council member of the Royal College of Radiologists and its Warden from 2000 to 2002. In 2004 she became the first woman President of the European Congress of Radiology. She received many accolades and honours including the Gold Medal of the European Society of Radiology.

Warm and friendly, with abundant energy and enthusiasm, Helen Carty was much admired by her colleagues. A clear thinker, she was rarely stuck for an answer and her decisions were usually well thought through and correct.

Latterly she developed a hereditary cardiomyopathy which restricted her activities and eventually led to her death. She did not, however, let this stop her making the most of life.

She is survived by her husband and by their son and two daughters.