Lall Sawh

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.

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, 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" and subsequently entered medical school at the University of the West Indies - Jamaica, when he was just seventeen years old. 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. 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. He would later collaborate with some of the surgeons on that team on what would become very high-profile cases on the island. Sawh is also acknowledged for introducing renal hypothermic surgery on the island 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.

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.

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.