Obituary: Dr Henry Loose

Created - 03.03.2014

Interventional radiology lost one of the pioneers in the specialty when Henry Loose died, at home after a short illness, on March 2nd 2014 at the age of 74. Henry was appointed as the first specialist Consultant in IR at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1982. 

In those days most consultant radiologists were expected to take undertake angiographic procedures as part of their general workload. With the introduction of the angioplasty balloon in the early 1980’s and the increasing use of trans-catheter embolisation for the management of bleeding, vascular malformations and tumours, vascular techniques had become an important area of sub-specialisation. Whilst he was by no means the first, Henry was prominent amongst the first generation of British IRs and over the next decade turned the Freeman Radiology Department into a regional referral centre with national recognition for training purposes. He withdrew from invasive procedures in the late 1990’s but continued to provide invaluable support to colleagues and reported vast quantities of plain films at the Freeman right up until his retirement in 2010.

Henry William Carrington Loose was brought up in Frinton-On-Sea where his parents ran a successful upmarket Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Outfitters shop in an area so popular with shoppers that it was known as the ‘Bond Street of Essex’. Despite being sent away to school at Haileybury, early life in Frinton clearly had a positive influence on Henry. He later kept hold of a shop-front property there, invested in various parcels of land in the North and accumulated a wonderful collection of Georgian silver and antique furniture. However, despite the pull of the thriving family business, Henry opted for a medical career and went to the Middlesex Hospital where he qualified MRCS LRCP in 1965. Henry appears to have devoted some of his time at the Middlesex to the accumulation of a sizeable income from gambling. He was a charismatic, even iconic, figure to many of the more junior medical students. After his junior clinical attachments and then postgraduate training in radiology at the Middlesex, Henry spent several years in Holland as a consultant radiologist in Leiden, prior to his arrival in Newcastle.

Henry Loose made a lasting impact on diagnostic and interventional radiology in the Northeast of England. His opinion on gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal problem cases was widely sought. Several generations of radiology registrars benefited from the entertaining and wise plain film teaching sessions in his beautiful Jesmond home. Henry’s interventional expertise covered virtually the entire spectrum but he had a particular interest in the angioplasty of renal artery stenosis and the use of embolisation for haemoptysis, GI bleeding and bone tumours. He was amongst the first in the UK to use Lipiodol angiography for the diagnosis of liver tumours. However, the greatest contribution Henry made, despite his modesty regarding his own input, was to join with Wattie Fletcher and others in founding the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) in the late 1980’s. In 2002 Henry’s name was added to the very distinguished list of international IRs that are Honorary Fellows of the Society. As Henry felt that the annual subscription for the BSIR had risen over the years to ridiculous heights, he took great delight, not just in the honour (he was intensely scornful of self-promotion) but also in the fact that, for him, the annual sub was now a thing of the past!

Henry was very attached to his cats and dogs, railed against animal cruelty in all it’s forms and was proud to support the preservation of trees and wildlife on his various properties. When dealing with personal, political or clinical problems Henry could always be relied upon to think laterally and come up with novel solutions. He was truly an exceptional radiologist and an unforgettable character. Henry is survived by his third wife Sandra, by his children Martin and Nicola and one grandchild.