Lall Sawh

Last updated
Lall Ramnath Sawh
Born (1951-06-01) 1 June 1951 (age 72)
Couva, Trinidad and Tobago
EducationWest Indies School of Medicine, Jamaica
Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh,
Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA
Years active1970s-present
RelativesWife: Sylvia S. Sawh (nee Ragobar) - Teacher

Son: Dr. Sean L. Sawh - Urologic Surgeon (Harvard Medical School)

Son: Dr. Shane S. Sawh - Dental Surgeon (UWI-Trinidad) / University of London
Medical career
Profession Surgeon
Institutions Port-of-Spain General Hospital
Southern Medical Clinic, San Fernando
Westshore Medical Clinic, West Moorings
Sub-specialties Urology
Research Kidney transplantation
Urological disease
AwardsWho's Who in the World of Science and Technology
100 Greatest Living Surgeons
Chaconia Medal - Gold

Lall Ramnath Sawh CMT, FRCS (Edin), FACS (born 1 June 1951) is a Trinidadian urologist in the Caribbean and Latin America. Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Sawh was a pioneer of kidney transplantation in the Caribbean in 1988 and is a recognized leader in the field of urology. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and medical training

Lall Sawh was born in a Couva, Trinidad and Tobago where most of his time was spent selling produce in a local market. Despite having to utilize brown paper bags as notebooks, [3] Sawh was able to excel in school and attended Naparima College, San Fernando, one of Trinidad's premiere secondary schools. He held the position of "Head Prefect" [4] and subsequently entered medical school at the University of the West Indies - Jamaica, when he was just seventeen years old. [3]

Graduating with first class honours, [4] Sawh was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship after medical school and moved to the United Kingdom to specialize in urology. [5] In 1985, he moved to the United States to complete his training as a Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Urology Fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He completed further training at the Urology Department at Washington University School of Medicine. He would later complete further training in transplant surgery and minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery and is credited as introducing these procedures to the Caribbean. [3]

Career

By 1962 Trinidad and Tobago had gained independence from Great Britain, and by 1976 the country had become a republic with the Commonwealth nations. Urology in Trinidad was in its infancy, and the departure of the only two practising urologists left a void in the field. Dr. Sawh was therefore left as the sole urologist, giving him the opportunity to pioneer several urological procedures at the San Fernando General Hospital. [6] This included the introduction of the percutaneous nephrolithotomy surgery for staghorn calculi on the island. After observing the high rate of diabetes and renal failure on the island, Dr. Sawh returned to America for further training in renal transplant surgery. On 27 January 1988, Sawh was the lead Urologist who performed the first set of kidney transplants in the country. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] He would later collaborate with some of the surgeons on that team on what would become very high-profile cases on the island. [8] Sawh is also acknowledged for introducing renal hypothermic surgery on the island [3] and is credited as the first surgeon in the Caribbean to perform a phalloplasty. [5]

In 1994, Sawh, through his company Uroco Limited, implemented the use of the first Dornier lithotripsy machine in Trinidad, thereby expanding the treatment options available for kidney stone treatment in Trinidad. [3] In 1989, he was awarded the post of Consultant Urologist at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Due to a paucity of equipment in the government hospitals, he was forced to purchase and use his own equipment during his career at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. [9] Sawh was also awarded the post of senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies - Mt. Hope Medical Sciences Complex in the fields of surgery and urology. He was also a senior examiner for the final year surgery examinations. In 2007, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago authorized free brachytherapy services for the treatment of prostate cancer as a direct appeal from Sawh for that service. [6]

In December 2015, Dr. Sawh made history again when he removed the second largest renal tumor in the western hemisphere. Sawh and his team removed an eight-pound tumour from a 52-year-old man at the Southern Medical Clinic, San Fernando. [10] [11]

On June 1, 2017, Dr. Sawh introduced the Aries system by Dornier MedTech. This is a novel, minimally invasive approach for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. [12]

Awards

Dr. Sawh's services to Trinidad and Tobago have earned him a National award, "The Chaconia Gold Medal" - the highest award given by that country for excellence in the fields of medicine and surgery. At the time of the award, he was 43 years old, making him the youngest person in the history of Trinidad and Tobago to be awarded the Chaconia Medal Gold for his contribution to surgery in Trinidad. [3]

In 2009, Sawh was named a "National Icon" by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and was furthered honoured by the Society of Surgeons in Trinidad and Tobago when he was featured in their publication Trinidad and Tobago Icons in Science and Technology - Volume II. [3]

In 2012, Sawh was included as one of the few surgeons, and only urologist, in Nasser Khan's historical recount, "Profiles - Heroes, Pioneers & Role Models of Trinidad and Tobago". [7]

In 2018, Sawh was named one of twelve people who helped transform Trinidad and Tobago. He was the only surgeon to make the list. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urology</span> Medical specialty

Urology, also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive organs. Organs under the domain of urology include the kidneys, adrenal glands, ureters, urinary bladder, urethra, and the male reproductive organs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nephrectomy</span> Surgical removal of a kidney

A nephrectomy is the surgical removal of a kidney, performed to treat a number of kidney diseases including kidney cancer. It is also done to remove a normal healthy kidney from a living or deceased donor, which is part of a kidney transplant procedure.

Alexander Gershman is a Russian American surgeon He is considered one of the first surgeons in the world to apply the method of laparoscopic surgery and robotic-assisted surgery to urological surgery and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on minimally invasive surgery. After many years teaching, researching and conducting clinical studies on laparoscopic surgery throughout the world, Gershman is in private practice in Beverly Hills, California. His client list includes numerous Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahendra Bhandari</span> Indian surgeon

Mahendra Bhandari is an Indian surgeon who has made substantial contributions to the specialty of urology, medical training, hospital administration, robotic surgery and medical ethics. For his efforts, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India in 2000. Bhandari is currently Senior Bio-scientist and Director of Robotic Surgery Research & Education at the Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI) in Detroit, MI. He was the Symposium coordinator of the International Robotic Urology Symposium. He also has been the CEO of the Vattikuti Foundation since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mani Menon</span>

Mani Menon, born 9 July 1948 in Trichur, India, is an American surgeon whose work has helped to lay the foundation for modern Robotic Cancer Surgery. He is the founding director and the Raj and Padma Vattikuti Distinguished Chair of the Vattikuti Urology Institute at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI, where he established the first cancer-oriented robotics program in the world. Menon is widely regarded for his role in the development of robotic surgery techniques for the treatment of patients with prostate, kidney, and bladder cancers, as well as for the development of robotic kidney transplantation.
Menon is the recipient of the Gold Cystoscope award, Hugh Hampton Young award, the Keyes Medal, the prestigious B.C. Roy award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashutosh Tewari</span> American urologist, oncologist

Ashutosh K. Tewari is the chairman of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is a board certified American urologist, oncologist, and principal investigator. Before moving to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2013, he was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at Weill Cornell Medical College and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Tewari was the Ronald P. Lynch endowed Chair of Urologic Oncology and the hospital's Director of Robotic Prostatectomy, treating patients with prostate, urinary bladder and other urological cancers. He is the current President of the Society for Urologic Robotic Surgeons (SURS) and the Committee Chair of the Prostate Program. Dr. Tewari is a world leading urological surgeon, and has performed over 10,000 robotically assisted procedures using the da Vinci Surgical System. Academically, he is recognized as a world-renowned expert on urologic oncology with over 250 peer reviewed published papers to his credit; he is on such lists as America's Top Doctors, New York Magazine's Best Doctors, and Who's Who in the World. In 2012, he was given the American Urological Association Gold Cystoscope Award for "outstanding contributions to the field of urologic oncology, most notably the treatment of prostate cancer and the development of novel techniques to improve the outcomes of robotic prostatectomy."

Johan Naude is a South African surgeon and urologist. Naude was former president of the South African Urological Association and a pioneering transplant surgeon who worked closely with legendary heart transplant surgeon Christiaan Barnard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John P. Donohue</span>

John P. Donohue was an American physician. He was the Chairman of the Urology Department and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University School of Medicine. He pioneered treatments for testicular cancer, including the nerve-sparing technique. His work with Dr. Lawrence Einhorn led to an increase in cure rate of testicular cancer from 5% to 90%. He studied under Wyland F. Leadbetter. He began his career as a United States Navy officer while serving as the ship's surgeon aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fraley syndrome</span> Medical condition

Fraley syndrome is a condition where the superior infundibulum of the upper calyx of the kidney is obstructed by the crossing renal artery branch, causing distension and dilatation of the calyx and presenting clinically as haematuria and nephralgia. Furthermore, when the renal artery obstructs the proximal collecting system, filling defects can occur anywhere in the calyces, pelvis, or ureter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Palese</span>

Dr. Michael A. Palese, is an American urologist specializing in robotic, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery, with a special emphasis on robotic surgeries relating to kidney cancer and kidney stone disease.

Mahesh Desai is an Indian urologist who treats various kidney and urological diseases in India. He performs renal transplants in Gujarat, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William D. Steers</span>

William D. Steers was a Paul Mellon professor and chair of the Department of Urology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was a president of the American Board of Urology (ABU) and editor of The Journal of Urology. In 2003, the University of Virginia awarded Steers the Hovey Dabney Professorship. In 2004, Dr. Steers initiated the Charlottesville Men's Four Miler road race to raise funds for men's health. Steers was a viticulturist, and co-owned Well Hung Vineyard in Charlottesville. He developed YOURometer, an iPhone app used to record urological related symptoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Stifelman</span> American physician and urologist

Michael D. Stifelman Michael D. Stifelman, M.D., is Chair of Urology at Hackensack University Medical Center, Director of Robotic Surgery at Hackensack Meridian Health, and Professor and Inaugural Chair of Urology at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

André van der Merwe is a South African urologist. He is currently head of urology at the University of Stellenbosch and an associate professor at Tygerberg Hospital. He is best known for conducting the world's first successful penis transplant in 2014. He also performed the first laparoscopic kidney removal in South Africa.

Narmada Prasad Gupta is an Indian urologist, medical researcher, writer and the chairman of Academics and Research Division Urology at the Medanta, the Medicity, New Delhi. He is credited with over 10,000 urological surgical procedures and the highest number of urology robotics (URobotic) surgeries in India. He is a former head of the department of urology of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi and a former president of the Urological Society of India. He received the Dr. B. C. Roy Award, the highest Indian award in the medical category, from the Medical Council of India in 2005. The government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for his contributions to Indian medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wickham (urologist)</span>

John Ewart Alfred Wickham was a British urologist and surgeon, who was a pioneer of keyhole surgery and the autonomous transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) robot, foreseeing the subsequent revolution in robotic surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priyadarshi Ranjan</span>

Priyadarshi Ranjan is an Indian urologist, robotic surgery specialist, kidney transplant surgeon, and researcher. He is commonly perceived as the "Kidney Man of India". He is among the top 10 transplant surgeons across the globe who is certified of performing a Robotic Kidney Transplant. Currently, regarded as one of the pioneering leads for kidney transplantation across the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Challacombe</span> British urological surgeon

Benjamin James Challacombe is a British consultant urological surgeon at Guy's & St Thomas' Hospitals, and at King’s College London, who specialises in the treatment of kidney and prostatic disease using robotic surgery. In 2005, he was part of the team that published the results of a randomised controlled trial of human versus telerobotics in the field of urology and renal transplant, one of the first of its kind.

Inderbir Singh Gill is a professor of urology and robotic surgeon who is one of the pioneers of minimally invasive surgery. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. In 2017, he led the team that performed Mumbai’s first robotic kidney transplantation.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.