page_title: Victoria Coffey
section_title: Education and career
hierarchical_section_title: Victoria Coffey / Education and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Front Square, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
context_page_description: Victoria Coffey graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and became a paediatrician, and later one of the first people to research sudden infant death syndrome and one of the first females to undertake significant research into congenital abnormalities. She also became the first female president of the Irish Paediatric Association, the paediatric section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland Post-graduate Association, and the Irish American Pediatric Association. Coffey was also the first female recipient of the RCSI Distinguished Graduate medal.
context_section_description: Coffey was known for her diligence and hard work. At the age of 25, she qualified for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), where she graduated with a licentiate degree and a degree in midwifery from the conjoint board of the RCSI. Seven years later, in 1943, she earned a DPH diploma in Children's Health at the RCSI.
  She developed strong qualities of leadership, responsibility, and pugnacious personality by working with men such as Tom Lane, Henry Stokes and Oliver St. John Gogarty at Meath Hospital, the cradle of the Dublin School of Medicine, where she was a student and house officer. In the same year, she served as a clinical clerk at Coombe Hospital for Women. Shortly afterwards, she was appointed as a medical officer in St Kevin's Hospital due to  her knowledge of obstetrics. At St. Kevin's Hospital, Coffey became interested in the neglected field of congenital birth defects and began a publishing career. She was motivated to learn about the health of babies and young children, and focused on paediatrics.
  Coffey's first paper, which she wrote in 1953, is about syphilis in children. Her research mainly focused on children born with congenital and metabolic diseases, and was completed with the help of the Medical Research Council, Trinity College Dublin and Professor Jessop of Meath Hospital. She then began to research sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and was one of the first women to study it. Her numerous publications covered most aspects of congenital disorders. In 1954, Coffey gave a paper on this topic at the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.
  Coffey published her findings in the Irish Journal of Medical Science between 1955 and 1959. In recognition of her work in paediatrics, she was appointed lecturer in teratology at Trinity College Dublin in 1961, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Dublin in 1965 for a thesis on the incidence and aetiology of congenital defects in Ireland. She published internationally and maintained her research output for several years after her retirement. Coffey founded the Faculty of Paediatrics at the RCPI in 1981 and was the first female president of the Irish Paediatric Society.
caption: Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
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