Glasson native is Ireland's first female consultant neurosurgeon

A local woman who has become Ireland's first female consultant brain surgeon said she hopes her achievement will provide encouragement to other female medical students when they're deciding on their career path.

On Monday, to coincide with International Women's Day, it was announced that Glasson native Catherine Moran had been appointed as the country's first female consultant neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

She is taking up the role after a 20-year journey in medicine to date and will be joining a twelve-strong team of neurosurgeons in the National Neurosurgical Centre.

"It's like coming home. I have been abroad for many years on fellowships to complete my training but I always wanted to return to Beaumont Hospital," said Catherine.

"It's simply 'happenchance' that I should be the first female consultant neurosurgeon. And I hope I can offer encouragement to other female medical students deciding on what medical speciality to pursue.

"Neurosurgery can be such a varied practice and while my sub specialities are in functional neurosurgery and complex spinal surgery, I will also be operating on patients across a wide range of neuro-related conditions.

"I will say that the training is not easy and can be all-consuming. But for me it was definitely worth it."

Catherine is a daughter of Jack and Kathy Moran, and she has a twin sister, Rosalyn, who is a scientist at Kings College in London.

The Moran twins are past pupils of the former Bower girls' national school in Athlone, Tubberclair NS, and the former St Joseph's College in Summerhill.

In an interview with the Westmeath Independent in recent years, Catherine said her interest in brain surgery started to develop while she was studying for her degree in medicine in UCD in the early 2000s.

"I just found the brain fascinating and in some regards unexplained and not completely explored," she said.

"When I started my clinical training in St Vincent's Hospital I got the surgery bug. I found assisting in surgeries my favourite part of any day. When I finished my intern year, I decided to try and combine my two favourite aspects of medicine and apply for neurosurgery.

"I had never actually seen a neurosurgical procedure but something told me I'd love it, and I was right!"

A statement released by the Beaumont Hospital Foundation this week explained that Catherine would be bringing to her role a sub-speciality in complex spinal surgery and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

DBS is a long-term treatment option for people with certain movement disorders, including some Parkinson's disease patients. It involves neurotransmitters being implanted in the brain and electrical stimulation then being used to regulate abnormal movement.

Catherine's expertise in DBS surgery has now made it possible to establish a dual-site National Deep Brain Stimulation Service in Dublin.

She will conduct the surgical implantation procedure in Beaumont Hospital, and Professors Richard Walsh and Tim Lynch and their team will manage the patient assessment and follow-up programming and care in the Mater Hospital.

Upwards of forty patients have been deemed suitable for DBS surgery, and the surgeries are due to commence in the late summer of this year.

Previously, DBS treatment was only available via the Treatment Abroad Scheme in Belfast and centres in the UK, requiring extensive travel for patients at each stage of their care.

The Beaumont Hospital Foundation described the new DBS service in Dublin as "an exciting development," saying many patients with severe motor function symptoms were physically unable to undertake the travel that had been required to access this treatment in the past.

"Having undertaken a fellowship in DBS surgery in Bristol, I wanted to implement the service in Ireland," commented Catherine.

"The Mater Hospital is already offering the medical side of the treatment, and what was missing was the surgical arm. My fellow neurosurgeons in Beaumont Hospital have a wide range of specialities that address the treatment of almost all areas of neurosurgery.

"But the one speciality that was missing was functional neurosurgery, and I am very pleased to bring this capability to the team."

When this new service is running at full capacity, Catherine expects to operate on approximately sixty patients each year.