Dr Peter Loughnan

Born 24/3/1942 Died 22/8/2025

With many thanks to Dr Peter McDougall for his following eulogy.

It is my great honour to say a few words about my neonatal colleague and close friend Peter Loughnan.

After a stellar medical student career, Peter commenced work at the RCH as a member of the junior medical staff in the late 1960s. He surprised everyone by passing the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians soon after arriving, which demonstrated his amazing but sometimes underestimated intellectual abilities.

He also won the ‘Wearing Award’ for being a very naughty boy! His extraordinary intellectual talents were matched by his fiendish sense of humour from very early in his career.

After a few years as a registrar, he and his wife Marg moved to Canada to take up a position as Pharmacology Fellow at Montreal in 1973. Whilst there he didn’t really like some of the French Canadians and subsequently taught me, a French student, his favourite French phrase: ‘Vous get Stuffed!!’

He returned to the RCH in 1975 as the hospital’s first clinical pharmacologist and soon published a stream of scientific articles in peer reviewed journals.  His first scientific paper was published in 1973 in the Lancet with Peter as primary author, a very significant achievement. However, Paediatric Pharmacology was not given its due recognition in the 1970’s and Peter went through a challenging period of his career.

In 1978, at lunch in the doctor’s dining room at the RCH, Peter, met with his friend from his medical school days, Neil Campbell, who was the recently appointed inaugural Director of Neonatology. Peter noticed that Neil was looking very tired after several weeks on call and offered to cover Neil’s night in neonates. And so, Peter’s career in neonates was launched. With an adult fellowship and no recent experience in neonatology he soon joined the team of Campbell and Gillam. It was a seamless transition! I first met Peter during my term in neonates as a registrar in 10 west in 1979 and I joined the unit in 1984 as a consultant.

From 1978 until 1996, Peter was officially employed part-time with the Neonatal Unit and he also worked in private practice. However, from the time he started in the Neonatal unit Peter’s dedication to the care of babies, their parents and all staff in the Unit was more than full-time. He lived and breathed the Neonatal Unit. Peter had a very focussed dedication to the care of sick newborn babies and applied his considerable intellectual talents, in combination with his passion to save babies who would otherwise not have survived. But he always cared for the quality of outcomes and would not pursue intensive care that parents saw as futile.

This dedication had very serious consequences when in 1989 members of the ‘Right to Life Association’ attempted to intervene in the care of a baby girl. A few days later he and I were visited by the police on a Friday afternoon. They informed us that we could possibly be charged with manslaughter if the baby died. It was a chilling event. I stopped the conversation and rang the CEO, Dr Barry Catchlove, who galvanised legal support. After her death the case was referred to the coroner for an inquest which was held 2 years later and known as the Baby M case. The RTLA had extensive legal representation and they pilloried Peter throughout the inquest. Peter put his incredible energy into this case and together with our solicitor John Snowden we spent countless hours towards a very successful outcome. This came at tremendous personal cost to Peter but through it he demonstrated his amazing resilience. This experience really cemented our friendship.

In the late 1980’s Peter and I recognised that the lack of research in our department was a significant weakness. He mentored Peter Dargaville and Paul Ekert in their early research years going on to great achievements and the research profile of the department gradually lifted to its very high standard today.

We pioneered High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation in Australia at RCH and ran education programs for neonatologists and nurses across the country.  This mode of ventilation is now standard of care and has made a difference to thousands of critically ill newborn babies.

Through his close friendship with Bert Bunnell from the Bunnell Company in Utah, Peter introduced High Frequency Jet Ventilation to newborn care at the RCH. Until recently, no other hospital in Australia had this technology. Through his tenaciously inquiring mind Peter developed techniques of its use that have been replicated internationally. Peter was THE expert in Jet Ventilation and an annual national seminar is now named after him.

Peter also became Australia’s expert in the management of the extremely rare condition of Vein of Galen and he was the expert in Australia regarding Vitamin K prophylaxis.

He established the Cartwright Neonatal Database for the neonatal unit.

Peter was a great mentor and influencer: Among those he mentored were:

Professor Denise Harrison. He was supervisor of her PhD thesis on the groundbreaking use of sucrose in the management of procedural pain in neonates.  After 10 years as Professor of Nursing Research in Canada she is now Professor of Nursing at the University of Melbourne and is a world expert in non-pharmacological pain prevention.

Dr Jag Ahluwalia neonatal fellow in the mid 90’s. After a stellar career in Neonatology at Cambridge Jag is now Chair of the Board of Directors of Royal Papworth Hospital, UK.

Dr Neil Patel Clinical Innovation Director and Consultant Neonatologist, Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

Professor David Tingay, Clinical neonatologist and Respiratory physiologist, Melbourne Children’s Campus.

Professor Rod Hunt, Director of Neonatal Research, Monash Children’s Hospital.

As a result of his life saving efforts of their daughter, Chris and Sophie Clarke ran the first “Celebration of Life” fundraising Ball in 2002 which was an annual event for over 10 years and raised over a million dollars for the NNU.

What made him stand out?

His care of all staff in the Neonatal Unit by Peter was legendary. He always had good things to say to people and to make light of a bad situation. Caring for the sickest babies in Victoria is challenging at the best of times and there are many dark hours. Peter Loughnan had the most amazing ability to inspire people and keep them amused yet focused on the care of babies and families.  His care of staff enabled the team to thrive and achieve great things by bringing joy to work. He wore his heart on his sleeve and staff could observe that bad outcomes could make him cry and he shared this with staff and frequently debriefed with them.

His care of parents went above and beyond the call of duty and they loved him for it. They even forgave him for being late or doing unusual things like wearing a party hat during a meeting!

His care of patients In addition to intensive care he would do extra things like flying a baby and mother in his plane or buying an ice cream or a trip to the zoo. He was always very attentive to the comfort of babies in simple ways.

His humour I still smile thinking of the many anecdotes he told over the years. They were repeated many times and each time with a different slant. Most of them were loosely based on fact! My favourite was the condom story.

He was never ‘Politically Correct’, but only he could get away with it.

The ward Christmas Parties were always fun and many of the children of staff still remember them.

He loved writing songs. His most famous was the ECMO song which won the Golden Membrane award at the annual ECMO conference in Breckenridge, Colorado. He travelled nonstop from Melbourne and arrived half an hour before the competition surprising us whilst we were rehearsing. Just a few weeks ago he and I sang it again.

Being late: He was always late for meetings, ward rounds, lectures, social events, and he usually walked into the room with an innocent look on his face that said ‘why are you all so early’.

His Being loved by his colleagues Ruth Armstrong, Anastasia Pellicano, Amanda Moody, David Tingay, Michael Stewart, and John Mills who stated that Pete ‘broke the mould and leaves a legacy of innovative thinking, countless children and families who benefitted from his compassionate care, an enthralling raconteur, artful mentoring and his scores of his stories which may never be verified’.

Antarctica. He and Marg had 8 trips to Antarctica as ship doctor and nurse even though they had no experience in adult medicine or surgery since their early years of training. But like his career in Neonatology he learned a lot about Adult Medicine and Surgery and his patients benefitted.

In 2002, Peter’s great work was recognised by the RCH, by awarding him the hospital’s most prestigious award, the Gold Medal followed by the Elizabeth Turner Medal a few years later awarded by RCH Senior Medical staff.

Two days ago, my son Robert wrote from Northern NSW to Marg which he copied to me and I quote: ‘I have thought about you and him often throughout the years about the trip to New York we did together which was so important to me 23 years ago. The two of you touched and coloured and changed a lot of lives, as you did mine. I could say so many things about him, and everything I say could apply to you too. So iconic and inseparable you both were. The humour, the warmth, the intelligence, all the banter, the yarns, the care, the adventure, and the friendship you have showed my old man, and how important Peter and you were and are to him.’

Vale Peter Loughnan

Peter McDougall

Deputy Director 1984-1999

Former Director 1999-2010

Neonatal Unit, RCH

Chief Medical Officer 2010-2018

Clinical Professor University of Melbourne, Department of Paediatrics, 2015-2020

Board Director, Monash Health, 2019- current