Salute for surgeon

The Honorary Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons was conferred on Prof (Dr) Tehemton Erach Udwadia of Bombay at the annual convocation of the College on October 3, 2010 in Washington DC. Each year the Board of Regents recommends a surgeon from any country outside the United States to receive this honor and in 2010 it was presented to Udwadia for "his personal dedication, passion and integrity” in transforming "surgical care in the second largest country on this earth,” as noted the citation read by Prof John G. Hunter, Mackenzie Professor and Chair­man of Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, on the occasion. A copy of the citation was sent to Parsiana by the senior surgeon who mentioned in the covering letter that the only other Indian to receive the same honor several years back was also a Parsi — the late plastic surgeon Dr Noshir Antia.

Prof John Hunter reading from citation honoring Dr Tehemton Udwadia (right)

"Udwadia has perhaps done more for surgical health of Indian patients than any other surgeon on this vast subcontinent... by demonstrating that laparos­copic surgery is not just for the wealthy, but can be used in cost-effective fashion to relieve suffering for all,” the citation mentions. Udwadia was criticized for this by some. In the Millennium Storz Lecture delivered by him on "One world, one people, one surgery” at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons Congress in 2000, he said, "My critics asked what right has a poor people who lack drinking water, sanitation and primary health care to aspire to high technology surgery or even deserve it?” His response was: "I cannot passively accept that in one country or in one world there must forever and ever be perpetuated a class system with a second tier of humans fit only to second rate surgery. The poorest of the poor have as much right as anyone else to less pain after operations, reduced medications, less morbidity, shorter hospitalization and early return to home, family and work.”

Udwadia’s father was a family physician who worked in the poorest areas of Bombay until the age of 84 and the citation says that "his passion for people and dedication to his profession rubbed off on his son.” Educated in Bombay and Liverpool, Udwadia returned to India in 1963 where he has been practicing for the last 48 years. A man of letters, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Minimal Access Surgery and former editor-in-chief of the Indian Journal of Surgery, Udwadia has published 96 works in national and international journals. Widely traveled, the eminent surgeon has delivered more than 180 keynote addresses, plenary speeches and paper presentations at home and abroad.

Past president of several surgical societies including the International Federation of Societies of Endoscopic Surgeons, he is also honorary member of the Nepalese, Japanese and Brazilian Colleges of Surgeons as well as the Association of Rural Surgeons of India. Currently he is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the Grant Medical College and J. J. Hospital, and consultant surgeon at the Hinduja, Breach Candy and B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospitals in Bombay.