My father, Samuel Bhima, who has died aged 97, was a trailblazing African obstetrician and gynaecologist who was dedicated to women’s health in his homeland, Nyasaland (now Malawi), and the UK.
Sam was the first black doctor to practise in Nyasaland and the country’s first – and from 1969 to 1973 the only – specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist. He helped to change healthcare for women in the country despite being twice exiled under the autocratic leadership of Dr Hastings Banda.
Born in Limbe, Nyasaland, Sam was the eldest child of Valla Bhima, a blacksmith on the railways, and Tulaba Nkasa. After attending Henry Henderson Institute and Blantyre secondary school, Sam studied medicine at Makerere University, Uganda, on a scholarship. After qualifying, he returned to Nyasaland in 1953 as a government-employed doctor and was for some years the sole doctor running a rural district hospital at Ncheu, attending to everything from autopsies to lion attack injuries.
After gaining experience in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Rotunda hospital in Dublin in 1957-58, he returned home. However, following Nyasaland’s transition to independence as Malawi in 1964, he was warned that his friendships with ministers who had opposed Banda now put his life in danger. He left almost immediately with the assistance of friends and travelled to the UK.
He worked at hospitals in Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire and Marston Green while obtaining his membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in 1969, the first Malawian to do so. He then trained in Ethiopia under the eminent doctors Catherine and Reginald Hamlin in their pioneering surgical technique to repair vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF), a socially isolating birth injury that is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, and was able to take his new expertise back to Malawi.
From 1970 to 1973, as senior consultant, Sam oversaw a remarkable transformation in antenatal care at Queen Elizabeth Central hospital, Blantyre. He also successfully treated more than 150 women with VVF, providing them with a new lease of life; arguably his crowning achievement.
But once again, in 1973, he was warned his safety was at risk, and returned to the UK, this time settling in Findon, West Sussex. At Southlands and Worthing hospitals, he earned a reputation for surgical excellence in complex cases, recognised by his appointment as fellow of the RCOG in 1984.
In 1994, aged 70, he went back once more to the now newly democratic Malawi, remaining until 2001, when he returned to the UK and became undergraduate sub-dean of King’s College Medical School, London. He finally retired at the age of 89.
Sam spent his retirement in Findon, where he continued his lifelong passion for vegetable growing.
Sam married Joan Baldwin in 1975. She survives him, along with their children, Samantha, Anita and me, his son, George, from a previous relationship, and 11 grandchildren.
