LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., MD Surgical Hero
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As Black History Month draws to a close I would like to introduce you to one of my surgical heroes, LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., MD. As surgical resident at Walter Reed in the 1970’s I had weekly grand rounds with visiting professors. The format was the presentation of interesting surgical cases followed by a discussion by the professor. It was at time of great education and great stress for us as residents as the professor would ask questions of medical students and residents on a certain disease process or surgical procedure that had been presented. We had several visiting professors who were chairmen of surgical programs from Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The most outstanding was Dr. LaSalle Leffall from Howard University.
Following the case presentation Dr. Leffall would walk up to the podium, grasp it in both hands and ask “where are the 3rd year doctors?” (referring to the 3rd year medical students on their surgery rotation) Next he asked where are the 4th year doctors, and so on through the residency ranks. He would then dissect through the case and give us the important lessons by asking questions all around the room. I remember once when I was the chief resident that one of Dr. Leffall's quesions made it all the way around the room up to me. Luckily I knew the right answer and didn't disappoint Dr. Leffall.
One of his favorite sayings was “There are only two reasons that patients come to the doctor, pain and bleeding. Pain because it hurts them and bleeding because it scares them.” He would admonish us that “there are two diagnoses that you will never make.” Then he’d stop and look out over the conference room and restate “never make”. Then he would tell us in his precise diction, “The two diagnoses you will never make are the disease that you don’t know about, and the disease you don’t think about.”
Dr. Leffall also taught us how to say Johns Hopkins. He would say “the founder’s first name was Johns, not John. You wouldn’t say Pitt-burgh, it’s Pittsburgh”.
LaSalle Leffall was born in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 22, 1930, to LaSalle D. Leffall, Sr., who hailed from east Texas, and Martha Jordan Leffall, from northern Alabama. He grew up in the small town of Quincy, Florida. Both his parents were educators in the public school system of Florida. Dr. Leffall graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class, graduated summa cum laude from Florida A&M University, and was first in his class at Howard Medical School. He did his residency at Freedmen’s Hospital, now known as Howard University Hospital and completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Dr. Leffall performed his military service as Chief of General Surgery in the U.S. Army Hospital in Munich, Germany in 1960 and 1961. He then joined the faculty of Howard University College of Medicine. He was selected to be Chairman of the Department of Surgery in 1970. In 1992 he was named the Charles R. Drew Professor, occupying the first endowed Chair in the history of Howard's Department of Surgery.
During the course of his illustrative career, Dr. Leffall was awarded honorary degrees from nine universities and was the president of nine medical organizations. He was the first African-American to be elected President of the Society of Surgical Oncology, President of the American Cancer Society, both in 1978 and President of the American College of Surgeons in 1995.
He used his national positions to emphasize the problems of cancer in minorities. He held the first conference on cancer among black Americans in February of 1979. "I have tried to point out the problems of lack of access to care and the increased death rate”. In 1980, President Carter appointed him to a six-year term as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board.
As much as he dedicated himself to the broader aspects of prevention, nutrition, and education as head of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Leffall continued to remind others that "the one thing we must never forget is that the object of our attention and affection is the cancer patient."
In 1987 M.D. Anderson Hospital established The Biennial LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. Award. This award recognizes Dr. Leffall’s contributions to cancer prevention, treatment, and education in minority and economically disadvantaged communities. In 1989, the citizens of Quincy, Florida named a street, a path, and the surgical wing in the Gadsden Memorial Hospital in his honor. The LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. Surgical Society was formed in March 1995; the Leffall Chair in Surgery at Howard University was established in February 1996. Dr. Leffall and his family established the Martha J. and LaSalle D. Leffall, Sr. Endowed Scholarship Fund and Endowed Professorship in Science at Florida A & M University in 1997 in honor of his mother and father. His memoirs entitled “Grace Notes—A Cancer Surgeon’s Odyssey,” was published by the Howard University Press in 2004.
In addition to his professorship at Howard University, was the chairman of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; the President’s Cancer Panel; the Board of Directors of the National Dialogue on Cancer. Dr. Leffall and his wife Ruth have one son, LaSalle, III an honors graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law and Business Schools. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Housing Partnership Foundation in Washington, D.C.. Dr. Leffall is an avid tennis player and supporter of jazz music. Because of his long-standing and close relationship with Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Dr. Leffall represents an important link with one of the most imposing figures in modern jazz.
Meet LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., MD, FACS in this video clip from the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2006/08/29/VI2006082900628.html