Marvin Leo Kwitko, FACS, FICS,

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional certification, professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an wikt:intercollegiate, ...

KStJ The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (), commonly known as the Order of St John, and also known as St John International, is an order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedica ...

(March 3, 1931 – August 20, 2002) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

who pioneered in

cataract surgery Cataract surgery, also called lens replacement surgery, is the removal of the natural lens (anatomy), lens of the human eye, eye that has developed a cataract, an opaque or cloudy area. The eye's natural lens is usually replaced with an artific ...

and

laser eye surgery Eye surgery, also known as ophthalmic surgery or ocular surgery, is surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa. Eye surgery is part of ophthalmology and is performed by an ophthalmologist or eye surgeon. The eye is a fragile organ, and requires ...

."Canadian recalls bringing cataract surgery home", ''Medical Post'', October 7, 1997, by Marvin Ross He is one of Canada’s most distinguished ophthalmologic writers and surgeons. Kwitko was the first doctor in Canada to insert

intraocular lens An intraocular lens (IOL) is a lens (optics), lens implanted in the human eye, eye usually as part of a treatment for cataracts or for correcting other vision problems such as myopia, near-sightedness (myopia) and farsightedness, far-sightednes ...

implants during

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens (anatomy), lens of the eye that leads to a visual impairment, decrease in vision of the eye. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colours, blurry or ...

surgery (1967) and the first doctor in Canada to perform

radial keratotomy Radial keratotomy (RK) is a refractive surgery, refractive surgical procedure to correct myopia (nearsightedness). It was developed in 1974 by Svyatoslav Fyodorov, a Russian Ophthalmology, ophthalmologist. It has been largely supplanted by newer, ...

surgery (1979). He was associate professor of ophthalmology at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal as well as Chief of Ophthalmology at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal. In 2002 he was made a knight, when The Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, on the recommendation of the Grand Prior, appointed him to the Most Venerable

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

of Jerusalem. Kwitko also served on the Advisory Committee on the Excimer Laser for Health and Welfare Canada. Most notable, he was the founder and 20 year president of the Canadian Implant Society. Kwitko was born to Louis Kwitko and Rose Gomberg in

New York, NY New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

. He had two sisters, Phyllis Kantor and Sandra Mula. A few years after his birth, the family moved to

Brantford, Ontario Brantford (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River (Ontario), Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by County of Brant, Brant County but is politically separate wi ...

. Kwitko went to Brantford Collegiate High School. After graduating, Kwitko attended the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

and received a B.A in English (1955), M.D. (1956) and his master's degree in

Pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

(1958). While in university, he was an active member of the

Western Mustang Band The Western Mustang Band (WMB) is the marching band for the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. The band performs at every home football game for the Western Mustangs at TD Stadium in the fall term as well as other athletic ...

and served as the

bandmaster A bandmaster is the leader and conductor of a band, usually a concert band, military band, brass band or a marching band. British Armed Forces In the British Army, bandmasters of the Royal Corps of Army Music now hold the rank of staff ...

in 1954 and 1955."Lots of People are Found Playing in Mustang Band", ''Western Gazette,'' October 29, 1954, 8. He was a resident and Fellow in ophthalmology at the Washington D.C. Hospital Center. In 2002 Kwitko died in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada. He was survived by his wife Alicja Zakrzewski, four children, and four grandchildren.

Books

Kwitko was author of six books, including ''Glaucoma in Infants and Children''; ''Pseudophakia: Current Trends and Concepts''; ''Surgery of the Infant Eye''; ''Geriatric Ophthalmology''; ''Eyes'' and ''The History of Modern Cataract Surgery''. His textbook ''Pseudophakia: Current Trends and Concepts''; published in 1980, was one of the first formal textbooks on the technology of intraocular lens implantation in the cataract patient.

Other

He was Senior Lecturer at the

American Academy of Ophthalmology The American Academy of Ophthalmology is a professional association, professional medical association of ophthalmologists. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its membership of 32,000 medical doctors includes more than 90 percent ...

, Secretary for the International College of Surgeons, President of the International Council on cataract and refractive surgery, served on the board of 10 ophthalmologic journals, Board of Directors of the National Association for Visually Handicapped and Past president of the Montreal Chapter of Canadian Associates of

Ben Gurion University Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli national founder David Ben-Gurion, the university was founded in 1969 and currently has f ...

of the Negev. As Executive Secretary of the International Society of Geographic Ophthalmology, Kwitko organized scientific meetings in

Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...

, Cadiz,

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

and

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. In 1975 he helped co found the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. He is the recipient of the University of Western Ontario Honor Award (1956), the Senior Honor Award of the

(1989), La Medaille d’Honneur, L’Association Francaise des Implants Intraculaires (1976), the Prof. Ignacio Barraguer Award (Spain 1970), the P. Siva Reddy Medal (India 1980) and the Agora trophy from Les Club des Ambassadeurs. Kwitko developed the "Rose and Louis Kwitko" Scholarship at Brantford Collegiate High School, the Dr. Marvin L. Kwitko Scholarship in Anatomy at the University of Western Ontario, and the "Dr. Marvin L. Kwitko" Scholarship at the University of Toronto.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwitko, Marvin 1931 births 2002 deaths Canadian ophthalmologists Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England