Our mother, Helen Dornhorst, who has died aged 94, was a woman of extraordinary spirit who, as a radiologist, served the NHS well into her 70s.
She was born Helen Innes in Gosport, Hampshire, where her Scottish father was the naval pharmacist. When she was 12, the family moved to Edinburgh, where Helen, as one of a handful of women, attained her medical degree in 1940, graduating as top female student at the university.
As a trainee and junior doctor, Helen had experiences that left a mark. In Glasgow tenements she saw children die from diphtheria and families without tables to eat on. In Oldham Infirmary she remained with her patients on the wards throughout nightly bombing raids. Helen joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and in 1945 was posted to the British Military Hospital in devastated Berlin, where she was greatly affected by the scale of civilian suffering. There she met Dr (later Professor) Tony Dornhorst, whom she married in 1946.
Early 1950 found Helen with three daughters aged two and under, yet still undertaking locum radiology work at hospitals throughout London, while running the house, making our clothes and looking after her intellectually brilliant but domestically dependent husband.
Despite always working part-time, Helen built a reputation as a fine paediatric radiologist, eventually becoming a consultant at St Mary's hospital, Paddington, and Great Ormond Street children's hospital. She came out of retirement to work, until aged 76, at Harefield hospital, Middlesex, reading the x-rays for Magdi Yacoub's heart and lung transplant patients – many of whom were young cystic fibrosis sufferers. Helen would go out of her way to talk to the parents of the children whose films she was analysing.
Helen's life and values reflected the complex pressures on bright women of her era. She revered Tony and would usually defer to his opinion, yet she carved out an independent professional life and travelled the world unescorted; she would iron all his shirts and then sit down to read Ulysses; she would cook the evening meal before doing DIY.
Like Tony, who died in 2003, Helen was totally committed to the NHS and baffled by the current government's dismantling of the system. She enjoyed discussing current affairs until near the end: her mind, despite increasing physical afflictions, undimmed – as was her delight in company, cats and her garden. She is survived by us three, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
