Christopher Balogun Lynch
OBSTETRICIAN AND GYNAECOLOGIST
Professor Christopher Balogun. Lynch MA, MBBS, LRCP, MRCS, FRCS, FRCOG, MAE (born 1947) is a British Obstetrician and Gynaecological surgeon native to Sierra Leone, Africa. He arrived in the UK by boat during the Windrush era at the age of 17 with £52.00 to his name. After passing his GCSE at A-Level, he won a scholarship to Oxford University and obtained his law degree.
Unable to find work in law, Lynch worked at a market and then as a hospital porter where he gained the opportunity to study at St Bartholomew's Medical College in London. Having received training from six Knight Bachelors, Lynch graduated in 1973 and later worked as Assistant Registrar to the Queen's gynaecologist from 1981-1983.
In 1984, Lynch worked as a consultant with the Oxford Region NHS Trust. He then went on to set up an Obstetrics and Gynaecology department at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust, becoming the first black doctor in Milton Keynes. In 1987, Lynch founded the Myrtle Peach Fund and remains the Chairman. This is a charitable organisation which is dedicated to preventing, combating and treating ovarian and cervical cancers.
Perhaps most notably, Lynch made a number of surgical inventions. In 1997 Lynch invented the B-Lynch Brace Suture. This surgical technique is a uterine pressure suture that prevents postpartum haemorrhaging without the need for surgical intervention. This procedure has been used on millions of women around the world and is credited with saving at least 2 million lives, also protecting them from grave outcomes such as hysterectomy.
Lynch retired in 2010 and returned to Sierra Leone. He now teaches doctors and medical students through Capacare, a non-profit humanitarian organisation that is dedicated to medical education and training in developing countries. Lynch is also a Commissioner with the World Health Organisation focused on improving women's health in Africa. He was awarded the Grand Officer of the Republic of Sierra Leone - the equivalent of a knighthood. This was presented to Lynch from His Excellency of the President Alhaji Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was awarded in recognition of his 'outstanding performance in the field of medicine and medical research' and in particular for his 'profound contribution in the area of obstetrics and gynaecology, having edited and co-authored a seminal work on that field' launched in the UK by her Royal Highness the Princess Royal.
A biography was published about Lynch in 2020 by Nana Ofori-Atta Oguntola.
Watch a short video on Lynch here.