'Marie and I'... Dr. Yusuf K. Dawood's diary - Written By Ann Wanjiru

It is 11am on a Tuesday and room 203, the Breast Clinic at Laboratory Consulting Rooms at
The Nairobi Hospital, is packed to capacity. In walks an elderly gentleman of Asian origin, his
trademark spectacles giving away his identity. The secretary hands him the day’s schedule and
makes a comment about a young journalist waiting for him. Yusuf Dawood Kodwavwala, who
quips as reflexively as he breathes, takes the schedule without comment. I learn that Dawood is
his father’s name and Kodwavwala his surname. He chose to use the former over the latter in
his writing because it was easier for most people to pronounce. Once settled in his modest
office, he asks me in. An ace surgeon,of course – and an awardwinning writer, Dr. Dawood
comes across as a hilarious lucky guy, who does what he loves.

If Dr. Dawood had a business card, it would identify him as a Surgeon at Nairobi Hospital. But
he is far better known - indeed, famous - as the writer of the successful ‘Surgeons Diary’ column
in Sunday Nation. They say furious readers will call to demand for the column if it fails to
appear. But in the medical world he is known as, ‘the breast guy’. Reason: “I did a lot of
research on breast cancer when I realised that more young women were falling victim to the
disease.” As a result his colleagues referred breast cancer cases to Dr. Dawood.

The little boy in a girls’ school

Many describe him as friendly and focused and he says he owes his personality to his primary
school in India, St. Agnes Convent, a girls’ only school run by catholic nuns. “I learnt politeness
and positive attitude.” How exactly did young Dawood gain entry to a girls’ only school? Maybe
it was so he could keep an eye on his sister Zainab who had was impressed that the school not
only moulded academic giants but also churned out wholesome characters ready to take on the
world.” And writing in his autobiography, “Whatever his reasoning, my father made a special
plea to the Mother Superior to enroll me in this exclusive girls’ school.”

Marie, the love of his life and the most consistent character in ‘Surgeons Diary’, is Dr.
Dawood’s dear wife of 50 years. “She’s endured me more than I have endured her,” he says
fondly of Marie, the woman he met in a operating theatre in an England hospital while serving
as an intern. She was a theatre nurse. “I thought she would have a relationship with the readers
once I included her in my articles.” However, he has an extra three wives, as he likes to call
them, namely: surgery, Rotary and writing. Surgery is his passion and profession, he gives his
time to Rotary club representing their different charity works in different countries around the
world, and writing…well because as we all know, it’s a talent. Indeed the title of his
autobiography, Nothing but the Truth - The Story of a Surgeon with Four Wives, gives credit to
all of them.

I see the sparkle between Dr. Dawood and Marie during a photo shoot at their home. They
constantly refer to each other fondly and have a twinkle in their eyes when they look at each
other. When Marie serves Dr. Dawood fruit juice, it is with loving grace. Then she lightly
proclaims, “We call our home tree tops, right?” The doctor agrees. It’s a name that suits their
Nairobi home as it is surrounded by lush grass and tall trees.

Don’t get it wrong, Dr. Dawood does not like ‘cutting up’ people, but he enjoys his job, and
especially eliminating pain. “Sometimes you save lives, other times you lose it,” he says, “but
you learn to handle it.” And he recalls one painful experience he had at the tender age of nine.
He watched his mother die while giving birth to his youngest brother. “My mother bled profusely
while giving birth to my youngest brother and when I asked the doctor if she could transfuse
blood, he said no because there wasn’t any blood transfusion facilities in the hospital. I can still
see her growing paler with each passing moment.”

That was the nail in the coffin, the end of the journey for a loving mother. For the next several
hours young Dawood watched life ebb out of her. This left a remarkable mark in his heart. The
family was to face an even greater mishap. “Soon after mum’s death the war started and my
father lost his business. He had no income to look after his family. Life became hard.”

The making of a surgeon

One of the elements that probably contributed to Dr. Dawood’s fate as a doctor must have
been the death of his mother. He grew up in Bantwa, (its only a few miles from the town where
Mahatma Gadhi was born), a little town in rural India “with no electricity or running water.” Then
Mangalore where his father owned a cashew nut factory. His dad was “not very wealthy,” and
had five sons whom he was determined to give a good life. “It was unusual for a father to
educate his children those days,” Dr. Dawood recalls. However, his father wanted his sons to
have the best of life in future, which, according to him, was only achievable through formal
education.

“Dad determined earlier on that we would all achieve higher learning and pursue different
professions.” In his plan of things, the Dawood senior wanted his first-born son to become a
lawyer, and he is currently running a successful law career in Karachi. The second born was to
become a doctor but had some physical disability and even though he was brilliant, old Dawood
preferred that he pursues law.

The buck of medicine therefore stopped with the third born who also decided medicine was not
his field, upon joining medical school, and enrolled into law school. Yusuf Dawood, the fourth
born of the family, was left with no choice but to fulfill his fathers’ wish of having a doctor in the
house Everyone else thought he would be a doctor, he didn’t fight their wishes and he wanted
to save lives. When it was time for college, he joined Miraj Medical School in India in 1947. His
last-born brother would later on join the medical profession as a physician.

Dr. Dawood’s dad passed on when he was a first year medical student. He describes the times
that followed assimply, “difficult.” There was no money for school and young Dawood depended
on scholarships to complete his course. This meant working extra hard each semester for an
above average mark that would earn him an academic scholarship.

Dr. Sathe, a renowned heart physician in India, inspired Dawood who set his eyes on becoming
a physician heart specialist so he could get a chance to work with his mentor.

There was something else though. He had no money for internship. He would have to score a
gold medal in medicine to get the paid internship. He also realised that he needed to perform
well in surgery as well. He put all his efforts in studying for his surgery test and as chance would
have it, scored a gold in surgery and not medicine. Though he could still pursue medicine, he
would have to pay for it himself. So he ended up choosing surgery that came with a paid
internship.

After completing medical school in India, Dr. Dawood went to England to obtain a fellowship in
Surgery. “I had a warm coat for the winter and fifty pounds only, all paid for by my eldest
brother, nothing else.” Fortunately he had a scholarship and got a job on arrival. In 1960, he
returned to Pakistan where his family had settled after fleeing from the war in India.
Unfortunately, by the time Dr. Dawood was going back, Pakistan was under Martial law and the
young doctor who was now married to a young English girl, could not settle there. Despite
opposition from his family, “they called it brain drain,” he cargo-sailed back to England. Dr.
Dawood’s brother gave him an aerogram as he boarded the ship and asked him to “read and
consider”. It was a job opening at the Aga Khan hospital in Nairobi.

Can’t stand apartheid

Dr. Dawood wrote and asked for more information about the position, without really applying for
it and to his surprise, received a letter inviting him for an interview for the position. The interview
was in London. There were three other candidates but Dr. Dawood beat them all. He however
had reservations about moving to Nairobi because, “I thought it was like South Africa where there
was apartheid.” He shared his reservations with his interviewers but they urged him to
think about it. The interviewers even told his closest contender they would offer him the job if Dr.
Dawood turned it down. A professional surgeon living in Khartoum was in the panel of
interviewers and told him he didn’t know what he was throwing away, a possible lifetime
opportunity.” Two days later the Agakhan wrote asking for a meeting with Dr. Dawood, before
he had even made the final decision. He raised the race issue and was assured Nairobi was not
like South Africa.

His prospective employers told him Aga khan Hospital had a mixed clientele and that he would
come in handy in handling and understanding different kinds of patients, given he was a
surgeon who could fluently speak four different Indian languages and English. In March 1961,
Dr. Dawood came to Kenya to start work as a surgeon. “Nairobi was then paradise with few
people and no traffic lights, jams, matatus, and no security grids on walls,” he recalls. That first
step has translated into over 40 years in the country. When his three-year contract ended he
applied to teach and work at Kenyatta National Hospital and other hospitals. Dr. Dawood later
became the Executive Director of Aga khan hospital and turned it from a loss making to a profit
making institution.

Pen-points to the tenth fullstop

“Life was stressful,” he says, what with a wife, kids and a demanding career? His two children
Jenni, a computer specialist with IBM and Jan, a management specialist now live and work in
the UK. Dr. Dawood looked for an avenue to release his stress and that’s when he had the idea
of writing a fictional book. “All the bad guys who gave me trouble at the hospital were the
villains,” he recalls with a laugh. He then approached Henry Chakava, then the head of
Heinneman Publishing House, who accepted his manuscript and published his first book. He
continues to write more books and has just taken his tenth manuscript for publishing. “I had said
I would stop writing once I did the tenth book. It should be in print early next year.”
‘Surgeons Diary’ column was born in May 1980. It was a fluke chance. Dr. Dawood was asked
to give a speech on short notice. He chose to give short case studies of his work…with a dash
of humour here and there. The audience was impressed, more so the then Editor in Chief of
Nation Group of Newspapers, Joe Rodrigues, who asked Dr. Dawood to put his speech in
writing. He did and has continued to do so nearly thirty years later. His major strength as a
writer lies in his ability to write technical subjects using layman’s language, which makes
his subjects interesting to read.

One wonders if his patients identify themselves in his stories… “some do and are happy, others
don’t recognise themselves, because,” he changes names to maintain confidentiality. Dr.
Dawood was later in 1986, approached to write a column, ‘Reminisces of a Surgeon’s diary’ for
a new magazine that had just hit the market, Parents, which is published by Stellan Consult. It
was hard maintaining the two columns. “Writing ‘Surgeon’s diary’ is time consuming, especially
when you run out of true interesting stories,” shares Dr. Dawood, “but they are all drawn from
real life experiences.”

At 78, Dr. Dawood is not about to retire and says as much. “I never want to retire as long as I
can do surgery, write and serve Rotary.” And of course there is Marie to cheer him on. He
advises that it is important to, “take as much out of one’s life as possible. Do the maximum you
can as one only has one life to live.” Although Marie is busy doing charity work with different
community groups, she thinks they should now share more time together because they are both
in their twilight years.

Did you know Dr. Dawood…

Has traveled to over 100 countries
- Is active in the Rotary club where he once served as chairman
- Is a father of two children and grandfather of two
- Was conferred fellowship Ad-Hominis honors by the Royal college of Surgeons of
Edinburgh in 1999
- Hobbies include: writing, reading, traveling and surgery
- A one time winner of Commonwealth Literature Prize
- Will have his tenth book published early next year
- Served as rotary governor for 8 Africa countries in 1989-90
- Currently he is Rotary Foundation coordinator for english speaking African countries
- Penned his autobiography Nothing But the Truth-The Story of a Surgeon with Four Wives
- Served as president of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa, in 1986