Kevin Fabian Bleasel AO FRCS FRACS
Neurosurgeon
13 April 1924 – 7 June 2018
Kevin Bleasel graduated in Medicine from the University of Sydney in 1946 and was appointed as a Resident at St. Vincent's Hospital to Douglas Miller. In 1951 he achieved his FRCS in General Surgery and after completing general surgical training he undertook training at The National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queens Square, London in 1952. He returned to St. Vincent's Hospital Sydney in 1954 and was also appointed to the Lewisham Hospital at that time.
He was Head of Neurosurgery at St. Vincent's Hospital for many years and introduced Neurosurgical training to St. Vincent's. His innovations included introducing carotid endarterectomy to St. Vincent's. He designed a stereotactic frame in conjunction with a physicist at The University of New South Wales which was used successfully to achieve localisation during stereotactic treatment of Parkinson's disease. After a scholarship in the United States in 1963 he introduced cryogenic surgery for Parkinson's disease to Australia. He also introduced cryogenic hypophysectomy for malignant bone pain. Amongst other procedures he introduced balloon compression for trigeminal neuralgia. He subsequently introduced transsphenoidal pituitary surgery which had been used in the early 20th Century but was abandoned for open craniotomy. He used cryogenic techniques for the pituitary with great success. He was an outstanding and skilful surgeon who related well to his patients and they admired him greatly as did his colleagues.
L'Association Medicale Francophone D'Australie which became a significant organisation was created in 1969 on the initiative of Kevin and a few similarly motivated French speaking and Francophile Australian doctors. The organisation thrived for many decades.
Amongst his honours he received The Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990 and in 2002 the Chevalier de L'Order National du Merite of France.
His wife, Marianne, predeceased him. They had 5 children - Andrew, Simon (deceased), Virginia, Nicholas and Fabian and eight grandchildren.
Submitted by Noel Dan FRACS and Kevin’s family.