Dr Michael David Kaye
1941–2019

Michael Kaye was born on 14 May 1941 at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney. He attended Sydney Boys High School and, in 1956, started studying medicine at the University of Sydney. He graduated in 1964 and became a resident medical officer at Sydney Hospital. He was interested in paediatrics and he did a residency at the Royal Alexander Hospital for Children in 1965. He was appointed the medical officer at Mount Hagen Hospital in Papua New Guinea, where he did paediatrics and looked after leprosy patients. He went to London and obtained his DCH, after which he worked at the National Women’s Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, and completed a diploma in obstetrics.

In the 1970s, he worked at the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the University of Sydney as a research fellow. He was an O&G registrar at the Wollongong Hospital, St Margaret’s Hospital and King George V Hospital in Sydney. In 1973, he completed his PhD at the University of Sydney and his thesis was called ‘Immunological Studies in Mammalian Placentation’.

In 1975, he sat for the MRCOG in London. Between 1977 and 1978 he worked in the Department of Clinical and Basic Immunology and Microbiology in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Laboratory of Human Reproduction and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School Boston on a World Health Organization Grant and Fulbright-Hays Scholarship.

On returning to Australia, he worked as a senior registrar at the Flinders University Hospital in Adelaide. After this, in 1980, he was a staff specialist in O&G on Thursday Island. He wrote more than 20 papers and much of his work was focused on infertility. In 1982, he was made a Fellow of RANZCOG. He married Ingrid in 1983 and they had twin sons in 1984 at Mona Vale Hospital. He was appointed a VMO at Mona Vale Hospital in 1980 and later was Chairman of the Medical Staff Council 1999–2001.

He enjoyed surfing, sailing and nature. In 2019, he had an accident at home and died on 19 September 2019. A memorial service for Michael was held at the Avalon Lifesaving Club. He is survived by his wife, Ingrid Carlstrom, and two sons, Cody and Nicholas.

Dr Jim Roche OAM CLJ
FRANZCOG