Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

117 LALL SAWH (1951- ) L all Sawh is a urologist who is well known throughout the Caribbean and the world. He introduced to Trinidad and Tobago “buttonhole surgery”, a procedure by which a small cut is made when performing kidney surgery.  He was also the first doctor in the Caribbean to perform a kidney transplant from a live person as well as the first in Trinidad and Tobago to perform a bloodless type of surgery.  Dr. Sawh also introduced the lithotripter, a device for removing kidney stones without surgery. In 1993 he was awarded the Chaconia Medal Gold. LESLIE SPENCE (1922-2021) P rofessor Leslie Spence was instrumental in the control and prevention of epidemic diseases in T&T. He is known for his work on arboviruses which included the discovery of several new viruses, and for his work on enteroviruses including the polio virus. As Director of the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory (TRVL), he developed the field of diagnostic virology to serve Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean. In 1951, he entered the Trinidad Medical Service and worked at the General Hospital in Port of Spain and in the District of Sangre Grande. In 1954, he was seconded to the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory of the Rockefeller Foundation and began a career in virology. He named three viruses after places inTrinidad andTobago –Mayaro, Oropuche and Tacaribe. His studies on an outbreak of poliomyelitis in Guyana in 1962 led to the application of polio control measures in Trinidad and Tobago. Professor Spence is also recognised for starting and carrying on rotavirus work in Trinidad and Tobago. Rotaviruses are a major cause of diarrhoeal disease in young children. • 2008 Chaconia Medal Silver