Gertrude Herzfeld

[1] Her surgical career was marked by her contributions to the emerging field of paediatric surgery, which at the time encompassed plastic, orthopaedic, and abdominal procedures, as well as neonatal work.

Due to a lack of hospital beds, Stiles' procedure was frequently performed in the outpatient department, which also allowed infants to continue breastfeeding after the surgery.

[2] Herzfeld died in May 1981, at the age of 91; her obituary in the British Medical Journal contained a tribute in which she was lauded as being "a large woman in heart [and] mind" who had "always longed to be a doctor": "None of her housemen could forget her great figure bending over a tiny neonate, opening and semi-constructing a blind cystic duct, easing a pyloric stenosis, or, later, apposing two raw edges of a minute cleft palate.

This was done by a great deal more than surgery: infinite thought, getting to know the child, the mother, the surroundings—a psychosomatic exercise in which Gertrude Herzfeld's warmth and wisdom combined with her skill.

"[6]In recognition of Herzfeld's contributions to the history of women in medicine as well as to the fields of paediatric and gynaecological surgery, Edinburgh council has included 'Herzfeld' in its street name bank for future developments in the South Central area of the city.