William James West

William James West
Churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Tonbridge. Place where rest the remains of William James West and his son, James Edwin West.
Born	1793 or 1794  England
Died	1848 Tonbridge, Kent County;  England
Residence	Tonbridge
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Guy's Hospital
Known for	Describe the West Syndrome
Spouse(s)	Mary Halsey Dashwood
Children	Julia, William, James Edwin

William James West, was an English surgeon and apothecary, who among other things took a prominent role in the local movement of reform of medical practice. He published in 1837 the first article referred to an ovariectomy performed in England and first described the picture of a kind of infantile spasm (present in his own son, James Edwin West) in an article published by The Lancet in 1841. this syndrome is typically characterized by three findings: epileptic spasms, psychomotor retardation and electroencephalogram with a characteristic layout of hypsarrhythmia, although one of the three may not appear.

There is little that is known about William James West, and the data about him, especially in their early years, are contradictory. Depending on the source his birth is dated in 1793 or 1794 in England, although it is unknown exactly the place. It is believed that received medical training at Guy's Hospital in London, and it is known that he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in February 1815.

West married with Mary Halsey Dashwood in June 1828 in the St Giles' Church, district of Camberwell, London. Although neither William nor Mary were originally from Kent, they lived in Tonbridge, a small town in that county. A year after his marriage was born his first daughter, Julia, and approximately between the years 1834 and 1835 was born his second son, William. His third son James Edwin, who was the object of the description of the syndrome that bears his name, was born on February 13, 1840.

West was working quite successfully as a general practitioner and surgeon in Tonbridge. In 1837 West published in The Lancet the first surgery of ovariectomy, describing how he removed an ovarian cyst with a size of about 20 pints (11.3 liters ). The patient recovered well, and the cyst was placed on display at the Museum of Guy's Hospital. His colleague and friend, John Gorham published a couple of years later several of the ovariotomies made by West.