World renowned County Roscommon medic passes away in US
World famous medic and Ballaghaderreen native, Dr. J. Aidan Carney, who passed away recently in the US.
World famous Irish medic Dr. J. Aidan Carney, who hailed from Ballaghaderreen, passed away recently in the US.
A doctor who had a disease named after him, ‘Carney Complex,’ Dr Carney was a lifelong staff member of the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
He was born in Ballaghaderreen in 1934 and was best known for describing what became known as Carney Complex.
The disease is a rare genetic disorder characterised by increased risk of tumours growing in different parts of the body.
Mr Carney graduated in medicine from University College Dublin in 1959, and interned in St. Vincent’s Hospital.
After further work in Dublin he moved to the Mayo Clinic in 1962, becoming a consultant there in 1966 and retiring in 2018 at the age of 80.
As Emeritus Professor of Pathology, he stayed on as a consultant at the Mayo Clinic and made time to meet Carney Complex patients.
He and his wife Claire sold their home in June 2018 and moved into a retirement home that is part of the Mayo Clinic‘s buildings complex. Mr Carney died peacefully on February 16th last.
The Roscommon Herald would like to thank Professor Muiris X FitzGerald for making the newspaper aware of his passing. Professor Fitzgerald also has strong Ballaghaderreen connections.
His grandfather Michael Horkan, grandmother Una (nee Higgins) and mother Eithne Horkan lived at Barrack Street in Ballaghaderreen in the 1920s and 1930s.
Professor FitzGerald is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics at UCD, and was Professor of Medicine and Consultant Physician at St Vincent’s Hospital from 1977 to 2006.
