Stan Verco converts World War I radiology use into benefits for South Australia; son Peter adds technology
Dr Stan Verco (left) was active in promoting the early 20th Century use of radiology and his son Peter introduced later advances in the technology, include obstetrics ultrasound, to South Australia.
(Joseph Stanley) Stan Verco and his son Peter were important threads in 20th Century advances and use of radiology in South Australian health.
Educated at Prince Alfred College, Stan Verco gained top place in every year of his course at Adelaide University medical school and won the Everard scholarship at the end of his final year 1913. He was a member of the university athletic and lacrosse teams, gaining a lacrosse blue in 1912. He also was a very keen yachtsman.
Shortly after his year as resident medical officer at the Adelaide Hospital, Stan Verco and lifelong friend Fred Le Messurier enlisted for service in World War I. They were posted to the No. 1 Australian stationary hospital on Lemnos Island in the Aegean Sea. The hospital was equipped with a portable X-ray unit that they took to Gallipoli, possibly the origin of interest in radiology. Verco later served in France until war’s end, with the rank of major.
Back in Adelaide in 1919, Stan Verso became surgical registrar to Adelaide Children's Hospital and, in 1920, its honorary radiologist. In 1924, he started private practice in radiology and radiotherapy on North Terrace, Adelaide city. He made three visits overseas for postgraduate study, working in England, Vienna and the United States.
For many years, he held honorary appointments in radiology and radiotherapy at the Adelaide Children's Hospital and the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and was visiting radiologist to the federal department of repatriation. He was member of the Australasian Association of Radiologists and first president when it became The College of Radiologists of Australasia, During World War II, as well as appointments and hospital time, he was deputy assistant director medical services with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Stan Verco was crucial in developing mass miniature chest radiography, particularly for mobile caravan X-ray units, that made compulsory chest X-ray examinations available and contributed so much to the early detection of pulmonary tuberculosis. Stan and his partner Colin Gurner, also contributed to the early years of neuroradiology.
Stan Verco’s son Dr Peter Verco also became a radiologist and introduced to Australia percutaneous arteriography, cerebral angiography and aortography, together with modern methods of vetriculography and tomography in the early 1950s. In 1973, he introduced the use of obstetric ultrasound to Adelaide.
A Nuffield travelling fellowship winner 1948-49, Peter Verco was in private practice, 1949-84 and visiting radiologist at Adelaide Children's Hospital and Queen Victoria Hospital. He was president, South Australian branch, British Medical Association 1957-58; president, Australian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine 1980-81; president, Royal Australasian College of Radiologists 1982-83; sometime deputy president of the Queen Victoria Hospital board
