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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E005704 - Levi, David (1901 - 1994)
Title:
Levi, David (1901 - 1994)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E005704
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-07-23
Description:
Obituary for Levi, David (1901 - 1994), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Levi, David
Date of Birth:
11 March 1901
Place of Birth:
London
Date of Death:
21 July 1994
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS LRCP 1922

MB BS London 1923

MS 1924

FRCS 1926
Details:
This surgeon has obituaries in two printed volumes (eight and nine). Volume eight: David Levi was born on 11 March 1901 in London, and was educated at St Marylebone Grammar School. At the age of 16 he entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School and won a scholarship which continued throughout his training. He was the youngest to become MS in 1924, and two years later he gained his FRCS. He was consultant surgeon to Westminster Children's Hospital, Luton Children's Hospital, Harefield Hospital, Hanwell Cottage Hospital, Uxbridge Cottage Hospital and the London Jewish Hospital. He was renowned for his enormous capacity for work, his judgment and technique and for the wide range of his expertise. It was said of him that he never turned a patient away and was 'on call' all the time, even when at his holiday home in Kent. In 1941 he published a series of 100 operations for congenital pyloric stenosis without a single death. During the second world war he served in the Emergency Medical Service, notably treating Normandy casualties in Southampton in 1944. From 1928 to 1966 he was lecturer in anatomy at St Mary's Hospital, drawing simultaneous ambidextrous diagrams. David Levi was a man of few words, great dedication, modesty and humanity. For some years he was warden of the West London Synagogue. In 1929 he married Vera, his medical secretary of many years. She died in 1966. They had four children - Judy, Jonathan, Jane and Petra - two of whom became doctors. Volume nine: David Levi was a consultant surgeon at the Westminster Children's Hospital and the London Jewish Hospital. He was born in London, the eldest of the four children of Alfred Kaufman Levi and Katie Julia née Rosenthal. His brother became a dentist, and his two sisters read sciences at University College London. A pupil of St Marylebone Grammar School, he entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School with a scholarship in natural science in 1917, aged just 16. He won many undergraduate prizes and qualified with a distinction in surgery at the age of 21. He passed his FRCS and MS aged 23 (possibly a record). He was consultant surgeon to Westminster Children's, Mount Vernon, Harefield, Uxbridge, Luton and Dunstable, Southall, as well as Hanwell Cottage Hospital, Hornsey Cottage Hospital and the London Jewish Hospital. During the second world war, he served in the Emergency Medical Service based at Mount Vernon Hospital and was stationed at Southampton in 1944 to treat casualties from the D-Day Normandy landings. In addition to his heavy hospital workload, he had a large private practice with a considerable emergency component. He was a true general surgeon, a skilled diagnostician and a rapid operator. He wasted neither time nor words, but at the same time was a gentle, witty and kindly person. One of his anaesthetists stated that when GPs scrubbed with their patients, David would put two Spencer Wells forceps on the fascia and tell them to hold on, thus ensuring that they could not interfere with his surgery. His skills were nowhere better shown than in the treatment of infantile pyloric stenosis, where he published a series of 100 consecutive breast-fed babies with no mortality. He was also lecturer in anatomy at St Mary's Medical School from 1928 to 1966. His Saturday morning teaching sessions attracted large audiences, not least because of his ability to draw on the blackboard symmetrically using both hands at once. His wife, Vera née Hemmens, was his medical secretary, and she managed and synchronised his extensive private practice. She died in 1966. Two of his children became doctors. Jonathan is a gastroenterologist at Northwick Park Hospital and Judy is an associate specialist on the obstetric and paediatric units at University College Hospital. He died on 21 July 1994.
Sources:
*The Times* 28 July 1994

*Daily Telegraph* 23 July 1994

*BMJ* 1994 309 469
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005700-E005799
Media Type:
Unknown